


Act One: Kanto: The Return of Rune

by MinawaKitten



Series: Soul [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: AU, Fantasy, Game Inspired Fantasy AU, Gen, OCs - Freeform, a lot of people punching in the face
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-16
Updated: 2013-10-15
Packaged: 2017-12-29 13:20:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 50,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1005916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MinawaKitten/pseuds/MinawaKitten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Long ago was an organization called Rune, Rune was dedicated to peace and harmony among man and pokemon but a catastrophic explosion caused the end of this organization.</p><p>The young heir, a girl named Steel, moved to a new town without her parents for they died in this explosion. Steel has grown over the years and time has come for her to begin her own adventure as a trainer with her friends Brass and Galvin.</p><p>Sadly, a new Rune rises bringing forth chaos, disaster and despair. What are Steel and her friends to do when they cross path with this Neo Rune?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Before the time of pokeballs, farther back than one might think… an ancient battle technique called PokeSoul, where a human and a Pokemon would become one, existed. A PokeSoul user had at least ten times more than a Pokemon alone.

People and Pokemon used this power to coexist together, and peace lasted for a long time, and then, people clothed in black, calling them selves the Black Cross, abused the beautiful gift from Arceus. Terror befell the innocent, and lives were claimed in large numbers.

But, as always, in times of fear, there are people who strive to protect, and nineteen chosen children stood up and defended the innocent.

In teams of three, they protected the many different lands spread out over the seas; they bore no names, just like the Pokemon they battled with as one. One by one, each of the villainous leaders that had headed the attacks on the lands fell. Only one remained, the leader of the massacre.

The nineteen heroes entered the Hidden Land, the dark one sitting in his throne awaiting. They waged a gruesome battle, and it was said it lasted for a month before he feel to his knees, defeated. Together, a decision was made, that there was one thing left to do. Seal the PokeSoul ability within a tablet. In a flash of white, the whole world was engulfed, and no one could use the ability anymore.

The nineteen returned to their proper region, Pokemon aids at their side. Little by little, peace returned, and the children introduced the 'Pokeball' by using different colored apricots. The nineteen pokemon aids disappeared, creating homes for them selves… The nineteen children were finally named; they had the same name their pokemon received.

\+ + +

It was dark and abandoned, untouched by time's crumbling affects. The castle held no occupants, except one figure. The dead grass crunched under their feet, as they walked to the black marble steps. Boots clicked against the marble tiles with each step to the throne.

The figure grinned a bright, Cheshire cat smile through the shadows. They had found what should have been lost by time. It was supposed to never be found again. The figure's young hands grasp a small tablet.

The figures raises the tablet high above their head, bringing it down, the tablet shatters like glass. A bright red light illuminates the area, the figure is revealed to be a woman, a defiant smirk on her face, as her crimson hair flies wildly around her.

\+ + +

"Heyyyy," a boy with brass brown hair, along with matching eyes called. Pidgeys took flight at his loud voice. "Steel! Wake up!"

No response.

"Brass, shut up before you wake up the whole town," the boy next to the yelling one sighed. He appeared to be the oldest, with his wise and sharp green eyes. He sighed, and rubbed his sandy brown spikes. Brass wrinkled his nose in annoyance.

"Shut up, Galvin," the elder glared. and Brass looked back up at the window on the second floor of the small house. "C'MON STEEL! WAKE UP! THE PROFESSA IS GONNA GIVE US OUR POKEMON TODAY!"

Inside that very same house, was a young girl of eleven years. Tiredly, she clutched the pillow, as she gazed through her light, golden brown bangs at her Jigglypuff shaped clock. Her brown eyes blinked sleepily.

"…Eight o'clock…"

She yawned, and rolled onto her side, ignoring the cries coming from her friends outside. She, soon enough, winced as the stomping of feet came, and the door to her room was opened, her mother figure coming in. The woman sighed, and shook her head as she approached the bed.

"Steel, it's time to get up! Your friends are here, and I already let them in! Today is the day you three will go on your adventure," the woman stripped the sheets from the bed, and the girl huffed, and rolled away from her mother, which caused her to fall and hit the floor.

Steel let out a loud whine "Owww! Moooom, I felllll!"

"Yes, yes, I can see that," the woman chuckled, placing a set of folded clothes on the bed. Steel pouted at the laugher, and lack of aid. Not that she really needed it… she removed her night gown, and examined the shirt. She gasped, as this was a black and gray version of the girls' 'Hero' fashion line. A gray t-shirt, black trimmed sleeves and collar, along with a black pokeball symbol located on the lower left side of the shirt, a black skirt trimmed in gray, and black wrist bands.

Getting these clothes was practically impossible, especially while living in Pallet Town!

"Y-you went to Saffron City for this thing?!" Steel sputtered in shock.

"Well of course! You've been talking about how much you wanted this outfit, and today is your adventure… not to mention your birthday too," the woman smiled, watching Steel excitedly pull on her clothes, and in the scramble to dress, something fell on the carpet. Brown eyes blinked as she lifted it up. It was a ring, and she recognized it… it was her mother's…

"It's… " a wave of sadness swarmed the girl, and the woman approached her and hugged her tightly.

"They recently salvaged the Rune base once more, and they found your parent's bodies this time…" Steel stared at the blue, diamond shaped sapphire on the silver band.

"That's… nice…" Steel's adoptive mother gave a soft smile, and kissed the forehead of the child.

"Have fun, take care, and call home often. I want to hear all kinds of stories from you…" Steel slid the ring onto her left ring finger, and hugged her mother.

"Bye Mom," Steel skipped out the door, but seconds later ran back in to grab a framed picture from the night stand, next to the pokemon shaped clock. Steel stared at the picture frame with a gentle smile. It was her, at age six, with a little timid looking five year old boy with black hair and hazel eyes. Her hand slid down the rail of the stair case to keep her from tripping down the stairs with her lack of attention.

"Hey… I hope your safe… maybe we can see each other soon, you're almost eleven, and you can travel…"

The girl sighed, as she reached the base of the stairs. Steel found her bag waiting for her. She unbuckled it, and slid the frame into the bag. She easily threw it over her shoulder, and pulled her head through the single strap.

Steel entered the living room, to find Brass glaring intently at the tv screen and smashing buttons on the SNES controller, trying to get a high score, which well beat his previous high score. As for Galvin, he casually sat on the couch, dressed up in a black shirt, purple jeans and black sneakers, newspaper in hand and a glass full of orange juice. She idly stood for a minute, mindlessly winging her leg around. She started to whistle, what which captured the attention of Galvin.

"Oh, you're up," he folded his newspaper, and tucked it under his arm. He quickly finished off the rest of his orange juice, and placed the cup in the kitchen's dishwasher. Steel watched him approach Brass, and tap him on the head with the paper.

"Time to go."

"Ten minutes." Brass muttered, in a daze.

"Now."

"Ten."

"Don't fight with me! Steel is done, and we need to make our goodbyes."

"But my high score….!" Brass let out a shrill whine.

"Do not make me have to drag you by your foot," the game suddenly emitted a loud YOU WIN, causing Brass to throw his arms in to the air, and jump up to his feet. His arms fell back to his side, and he turned around to face his friends.

Steel silently observed he was wearing a brown version of the male 'Hero' outfit. The boy adjusted his hat and approached her.

"Where are your shoes?" Brass asked, pointing to her feet. Galvin blinked, the newspaper must have obscured that for him, but Steel was indeed missing shoes.

"Oh, I left my boots by the door!" She grinned, and the boys watched her skip over to the door, and pull on the gray knee length boots. Galvin and Brass joined her by the door, and together the trio exited the house. With a grin, she closed the door behind her. She looked to her window and her mother waved. Steel waved back.

"Alright, lets meet at the lab in an hour, that way we will have plenty of time to say goodbye to our loved ones." Brass and Steel nodded, and the girl watched her two friends depart. She took a seat in the grass in town center. She sat crisscross with her face in her hands bored. Her eyes skimmed over the many flowers before her. She picked one little daisy. Nimble fingers plucked the little daisy's petals away, sending them flying by the passing breeze.

\+ + +

Brass unlocked the door to his home, and he carefully pushed the door open, hoping his father wasn't at the door and he just hit him with the door. But, thankfully he wasn't. Brass stepped in. It wasn't much of a surprise to find his father sitting in his wheel chair gazing out the window.

For the last four or so years of his life, his father has been confined to that wheelchair, ever since that incident, and without argument he was there to help him. Brass would cook, clean, do anything to help around the house. He never wanted his father to over work himself.

The man didn't have to look up, he knew already who it was.

"Your back, Brass," the adult frowned. "I thought you'd be off getting that Charmander you wanted so much by now…" the boy approached his father, joining him in the activity of looking out the window.

"Well," he shrugged. "Steel took forever to wake up, and I still didn't say goodbye yet…" the boy glanced to the wheelchair.

"Are you sure you'll be okay? I mean, you'll be on your own now…." The adult chuckled.

"Yes, yes, I'll be fine, don't sacrifice your dream for me! I want you to be happy, so get out there and have fun." The adult smiled, and Brass sighed.

"Okay dad…"

"Oh, by the way," the boy watched his father wheel away, and return within minutes, with a golden pocket watch on a chain. "Take this with you, a little piece of home…" Brass took the watch from his father, and smiled. He attached the chain to his pants, and slid the watch into his pocket.

"Thanks dad…" Brass smiled, and hugged his dad. The adult returned the hug, and gave his son a pat on the back. The boy sighed once more, and pulled away from his dad. The man waved goodbye, as Brass walked to the door. He opened the door and glanced over his shoulder.

He couldn't help but smile at his support.

\+ + +

Daisy sighed, embracing her younger brother. She sighed with imaginary tears crawling down her face. "Oh, today is the day little Galvin leaves on his widdle adventure."

"Dashy," he grumbled in her deathly grasp. "Thash shat shad all shut shugging meh." She giggled.

"My hugs too much for you?"

"Yesh." She huffed, and let go of her brother, letting him fall to the floor. Galvin grunted on impact. Daisy paused. Her hands reached for the back of her neck, and unclipped her necklace. Galvin stared blankly at the tear shaped diamond on the silver chain, as it dangled in front of his face.

"This is my favorite necklace! Take care of it!" Galvin took it with a brow raised, and pocketed it. He stood up, and gave her a quick hug before walking to the front door. She returned to her paperwork on the living room table.

"I'll call, Daisy." Galvin muttered. She smiled softly.


	2. Chapter One

Steel looked up. Her friends had returned from saying their farewells. She jumped up to her feet and grinned. The girl quickly dusted herself off, and ran off for the lab. She looked back to Galvin and Brass and waved them over. The boys glanced at each other, and with a shrug they walked into the building after Steel.

The lab was a quiet environment, not much more than scratches of pencils and hushed whispers, and with Steel's excited steps, and the squeaks of his and Brass's sneakers, they walked across the white tile floors to the desk where his aged grandfather, the famous Professor Oak, waited. Steel was already dancing in glee at the three pokeballs on the table. For any kid in Kanto, it wasn't that much of a surprise that the three starters was Bulbasaur, the seed pokemon, Charmander, the lizard pokemon, and Squirtle, the tiny turtle pokemon.

The professor smiled, and ruffled his grandson's hair. Galvin scowled and slapped away his hands.

"Aw c'mon grandpa, I'm not five!" The man smiled

"Yes that is right, Galvin, you're eleven years old. The age when young boys and girls leave for their adventures…"

"C-can we chose now!?" Steel questioned in pure excitement. The professor chuckled.

"Of course, Steel, go ahead…" The girl squealed with delight, and rushed up to the table where three pokeballs rested. In the center was one with a fire sticker, to its left was one with sticker of a flower, and to the right of the flames was one with bubble stickers. Steel's face lit up at the sight of the bubbles. She took the pokeball and let out the little monster inside of it. All that came out was a shell. Or so it appeared.

Stubby little hands, pale blue in color, clawed it's way out, then the head, and its curled tail. The pokemon let out a loud yawn. Steel awed at it, and took the pokemon into her arms.

"He's so cute! Imma gunna name the cutie Bubbles!"

"Squirt!" the pokemon gave a confident nod. The professor motioned Galvin over. He stood at the desk, slowly examining the remaining two. With a confident smirk he took the Bulbasaur.

Brass, being the last of the three, was left the last of the three pokemon, the Charmander. He took the pokeball, and let the orange scale fire lizard free. "His name shall be Flamin' Billy!" The pokemon stared oddly at his trainer. Brass grinned, and hugged it tightly, avoiding it's flaming tail.

"Hey Galvin, let's have a battle!" Steel suggested. The boy shrugged, letting out his pokemon. The green dinosaur looked around, slightly confused. Bubbles jumped from his trainer's arms to get down on all fours, in a defensive stance. Realizing what was going on, the Bulbasaur too got into a defense stance.

"Bubbles, use tackle!" As quick as it's four little limbs could carry it, the tiny turtle collided with it's foe. Bulbasaur growled.

"Tackle back!"

The green dinosaur Pokemon leapt at the turtle, a guttural growl escaping it's throat. The blue Pokemon scurried back, and snickered as Bulbasaur hit the ground. Adding insult to injury, Bubbles slapped Bulbasaur's face lightly with it's tail. The plant bulb Pokemon jumped up, aiming a tackle at the Squirtle, who, at the same time, leapt at the opponent. The two collided, and dropped again, both a bit dizzy. The two Pokemon got up, and continued attacking each other, each striking hard. The trainers were so focused on the battle, the sheer intensity of it, that they could hardly get in a command, along with them striking so fast. Suddenly, without warning, the two Pokemon stood staring at each other, out of breath.

"Bubbles! Finish it! Tackle, I know you can do it!"

"Bulbasaur, use Tackle attack! One more hit!"

The two Pokemon growled, and leapt at each other head first, however, Bubbles dodged to one side, watching Bulbasaur smash into the ground. With a quick maneuver, Bubbles smashed into the dinosaur Pokemon, winning the battle.

"We did it, Bubbles! We won!"

\+ + +

It wasn't that far of a walk to the nearest city, Viridian to be exact, about an hour or two. Along the way the trio encountered a few Pidgeys and Rattatas. Rather minor Pokemon, unless attacking in flocks or packs.

Upon arriving in the city, the two boys noticed a look of glee that Steel never showed before. A joy of returning home. She smiled, balancing her self on the balls of her heels.

"It hasn't changed much…" Galvin nodded, and motioned to the PokeCenter. Understanding what he was saying, she followed him and Brass into the red-roof haven for trainers. Sometimes, to stand in a center could be like standing in a melding pot, as all kinds of people could be in there, experienced ace trainers, bikers, beauties, lasses, fishermen, athletes, coordinators, or musicians.

Steel walked to the aquarium that was against the wall. There weren't many pokemon in the tank, which made her glad to know her cute little Seaa wouldn't be cramped. She climbed up the ladder and pulled out the second pokeball from her bag. A white beam of light shot out, materializing into the shape of a sea horse.

"Horseeeea!" It cooed.

"Hey Seaa, you don't mind waiting in here, do you boy?" In response, the Pokemon swam in circles, and made squeaks of joy. Grinning, Steel slid down the ladder, and joined Galvin and Brass on the counter. The two males placed their pokeballs on the counter, and Steel added Bubbles to the four.

"Man, did you hear about those Rune guys?" A voice came from behind.

For a moment pride swelled up in Steel's chest, Rune was a peace organization her parents made… and then there was the incident… and for a moment it took Steel to realize the tone in the boy's voice.

Disgust and rage.

"Yeah, they're some nasty people…" Steel clenched her jaw. How dare they speak of Rune like that!? It was made for peace, nothing more! In no way was it to harm anyone, none the less after the incident, the whole organization was dead or severely handicapped.

"I heard they tried to rob a Pokemon Center!"

"No way, did they?"

"Nah, the cops got 'em before they could get away." Steel couldn't take this! This couldn't be true! There was only the good Rune, her parents's one that was made to benefit both people and Pokemon! She suddenly reeled around and grabbed the boy by his arm.

"You take that back!!"

"Wha…?"

"TAKE IT BACK! RUNE IS NOTHING LIKE THOSE AWFUL THINGS YOU SAID!"

"Let go, man! You're hurting me!" Galvin and Brass turned around just in time to view Steel slapping the trainer across his face. They two friends were startled. As for the other boy talking about Rune, he looked horrified. Nurse Joy slammed her hands on the counter, rattling the awaiting pokeballs. Every trainer jumped.

It was an unwritten law in the world of trainers, to never make Nurse Joy mad, for she was a frightful woman when she was angry.

"Steel Selma, remove yourself from my Pokemon Center!"

"Bu-"

"Leave now, I will not tolerate fighting in my center," the nurse looked at Brass and Galvin with a sharp glare. "You two!" The two males tensed up.

"You're her friends right?"

"Yes ma'am!"

"You will get your Pokemon from your friends, once they are healed." Steel's shoulders slouched. She handed Galvin Seaa's Pokeball, and slowly dragged her feet as she exited. The nurse continued to glare, as the girl left. When the doors opened and then closed with Steel, she smiled once more, accepting more Pokemon, and placed a tray of healed Pokemon before a trainer. The trainer took his Pokemon and quickly left. Brass had the same idea, and quickly skedaddled out of the building. Galvin sighed.

"Wimp."

\+ + +

Brass was quite glad to be out of that freaky environment. He shoved his hands into his back pockets, and whistled. With a quick sweep around, he couldn't find Steel. He frowned, pulling his hands from his pockets. Where could she be?

Home.

It made sense after what happened at the PokeCenter, that she would want to somewhere comforting, and what's more comforting than home? The boy made quick steps for the residential area of the city, passing the gym along the way. He made a note it was boarded up.

He ran up and down streets searching for Steel, and, as he expected, Steel was standing in front of her house, or, what he thought was her house.

"Hey Steel." She jumped, and spun around to face him.

"Hey…" He looked at the house and sighed. It, too, was boarded up. It was just a simple one floor, white house with blue shingles. The grass had grown tall over the years of lack care, and weeds were everywhere. She brushed back a strand of her hair, staring at the house.

"I just cant believe people think Rune is evil…"

"We know they're not. I'm sure it's a misunderstanding…"

"It is! There is no way it could be evil!" Steel huffed.

"You sure?" Brass smiled.

"Positive!"

"Then don't worry about what they say," he laughed. "After all, you know Rune better than anyone else!" She giggled and smiled back.

"Yeah, I do, don't I…" Steel spun on her heels and kicked a rock. "Well, lets go to the PokeCenter. Galvin is waiting for us, I bet."

"He probably is…" The two walked down the dirt road, with big toothy grins on their faces. They soon reentered the area with the gym, Poke Mart and PokeCenter, where most trainers stood at the gym, confused about the fact that it was locked, when suddenly an elderly man jumped in the middle of their path.

"Hey thar, kiddies," he exclaimed in his hoarse voice. "Lemme teach you two about the ways of catching Pokemon!"

"Er… sorry sir, but we-" Brass was interrupted by the old man, who chuckled back at him.

"Nonsense! Kids these days don't know how to do anything!"

"Um…" with the feeble amount of strength the old man ripped out his false teeth from his mouth and threw them at a Pidgey, nailing the poor bird pokemon in its head. It sent an angry glare at the old man. He turned around, smiling and proudly showing off his gums at the two new trainers.

"Ansh thas es down." The two nodded and ran off to the PokeCenter. Outside, on one of the benches, was Galvin, casually reading a book. He snapped it close, knowing his two friends were there. He stood up and reached into his pockets. He placed Brass's Pokeballs into his hands. Facing Steel, he bumped her on her head.

"Don't do anything dumb like that again, okay?" With a heavy sigh, he dropped the two Pokeballs into her hand. She gave him a big grin.

"Okay," Steel quickly pocketed the pokeballs, and hugged her friend. "Thank you, Galvin!"

"Hey, it wasn't a problem." He smiled. Together, the trio walked down the dirt road to the Viridian Forest. Both friends were aware that Brass was already dreading this, due to his bug phobia. They entered the entrance building to the forest, to find it empty. Galvin raised a brow at the oddity of it. He shoved it aside, assuming the man was on his lunch brake.

Entering the forest, Steel's eyes went wide. She saw the cutest Caterpie ever. She let out a squeal of delight, and lifted up the bug. As for Brass, he let out a shrill, girl like scream. Galvin let out a sigh, and rubbed his temples. Suddenly, a bush rustled. All three of them stopped. A man, dressed in white and brown, emerged. He shined a flashlight on them. Steel gasped. This man was wearing a Team Rune uniform! A low ranking one at that. The man stumbled with a walkie-talkie.

"Intruders! There are intruders at the forest entrance!!"


	3. Chapter Two

The trio ran as fast as their feet could carry them, panting heavily, chests heaving, they couldn't stop, if they did the Team Rune wanna-bes would get them. The trio jumped into bushes and just for a moment they lost the Runes. Voices shouted and instructed directions how to capture the pre-teens. Suddenly the Caterpie, that Steel failed to realize that she ran off with, was crawling on Brass's arm, he flinched staring down at the bug pokemon in complete and utter horror. Galvin and Steel realized the boy was about to scream as it crawled up his arm and onto his shoulder, the two friends slapped heir hands over his mouth, muffling his girlish scream. Not a Rune noticed them. Steel only groaned in distain.

"I cant believe this, I just can't… an evil Team Rune?"

"We don't… really know that this Rune is evil…" Galvin whispered back, removing his hand from his friend's mouth and used it to prop his head, at least after wiping the stray slobber on Brass's back, Steel followed the motion and sighed.

"Then why would they freak out and try to get us, they sent a bunch of grunts to get us!" Brass whispered hysterically looking at the bug, its tiny eyes stared back, creeping him out further.

"I don't know…" Steel responded, she side glanced to the ground in front of Brass. She noticed his arm were trembling, more than it was a few minutes ago, Galvin raised a brow, together they gazed at their friend to see the Caterpie was on his face. "Oh god!" they couldn't cover his mouth, the caterpillar pokemon was covering that. Brass shrieked like a girl, the Caterpie was sent flying and tumbled out of the bush, Steel hurriedly stuck her arm out of the bush to collect the poor pokemon.

"What the hell was that?!"

"Go inspect it!"

A grunt was already coming, the trio scrambled away, Galvin muttered curses under his breath, Brass just running away from the Caterpie and his female friend, Steel held out in front of her body as she ran.

"For Arcus's sake just put the damn thing down!"

"But I want it!!!"

"Then catch it, Brass is freaking the heck out over it!!" as she ran Steel managed to pull a pokeball out, she tapped it on the pokemon's head. The Caterpie sat in her arms, without a struggle it was captured. Steel made a squeal of delight! It was a her first pokemon!

"Awww!! I'm so happy! I'm going to name her Kate!"

"…It's a boy…"

"Still Kate." Steel glared at Galvin, he just shook his head and looked around when a female voice cried out.

"THERE YOU ARE!" Startled, Steel dropped her poke ball, it rolled to the foot of the grunt, she scowled and picked up the pokeball. Inspecting the pokemon through the clear red covering, the creature trembled and an amused look crossed her face.

"A Caterpie huh… you three must be new trainers then… no experienced trainer would waste their time on something as weak and useless as this thing…" the woman looked around as she fixed her brown jacket. Steel scowled, this uniform she was wearing was the same exact one females wore when Rune was under her parents control. A white headband, tank top along with a skirt with a brown strip down running down the length of the hips, long sleeved brown jacket and ankle boots.

"Don't give me that look!" She spat, Steel suddenly jumped up to her feet and tackled the woman, wrestling her to the ground. "Whoa! What the hell are you doing!?"

"Give me back Kate!!!" Galvin started stupefied, why was she doing this?! This woman was dangerous, or at least had pokemon that could easily kick their butts and here was Steel trying to beat the woman up for her Caterpie. He knew Steel was crazy but this was ridic-

Galvin winced as the grunt was punched in the face, the woman slowly touched her cheek with trembling hands, her eyes were wide open.

"You… hit me…" she clenched her teeth and jaw, Steel swung again, this time the woman dropped the captive poke ball, Steel snatched it and quickly reached into her bag and pulled out another one, Seaa's. the sea horse pokemon was in Steel's hands and pointed at the woman like a gun.

"Don't make me do it!!"

"She's gone crazy!!!!" Brass wailed in horror.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Smokescreen!!!" the pokemon spout out a heavy black smoke from its snout, blinding all in the surrounding area. She quickly returned the pokemon, grabbed her friends by their shoulders and ran as fast as she could.

"You braaaaaat!!" the woman hacked violently, tearing up she grabbed her walkie-talkie and brought it up to her mouth. "They're on the run! They're heading towards the exit, stop them!"

\+ + +

The three huffed and puffed, they needed to get out of here, they couldn't keep running… Steel tried to scrape together some kind of idea… She knew what pokemon each of her friends had, Clef Star, Brass's beloved Clefairy, probably wouldn't be of any help, Flamin' Billy could with his fire attacks or could burn a lot of things with it's master's bug phobia, Galvin's Bulbasaur might not be of much use… but his second pokemon was his prized Scyther from his parents, it could clear a path if necessary and was probably the strongest pokemon out of all six in their group.

"Galvin," she heaved "You need… you need…"

"Need to what…?" he huffed glancing up to her

"Get Scyther out… I think… I think he can help us out!"

"You sure about that?"

"Yeah, he could clear us a safe path out of here…" Galvin let out a sigh, he reached for his belt, grasping the sphere it opened up. A red light flooded out taking shape of a giant bipedal mantas with scythe like arms, its wigs buzzed as it looked to it's trainer for instructions on what to do.

"Look boy, we are in big trouble here, but Steel has an idea how to get out of here. Are you willing to listen to her?" the pokemon glanced to the girl and the back to his trainer. The pokemon nodded. "Good," Galvin returned his attention to Steel "now, what is this plan of yours Steel?"

"We don't have much other than a rush and an attack to get out of here, Scyther is the strongest and he could easily clear a path for us but cutting down shrubs and trees."

"I guess so," he nodded. "Let's get going then, everyone let out their pokemon." Trembling Brass let out Clefa Star and Flaming Billy, Galvin let Bulbasaur to join Scyther, and Steel released her two pokemon.

"Ready?"

"Do we even have a choice?"

"No, not really…"

"Good then lets go!" they gave each other a nod and started down the path of the forest. All most tauntingly the exit building to the city could be seen between the trees, but so many grunts waited down that path for them. Steel pointed to a shriveled up shrub, Scyther already knew what to do, he chopped down the shrub with a swift slice barely creating a sound. The pre-teens walked through the newly cleared path, they wouldn't be noticed unless a Rune looked behind them.

"I haven't seen those kids, are you sure they are coming this way?"

"Hey, I was the one who got the call in the first place, I know that they are coming this way!"

"Geez, calm down. You can be so uptight…"

"Shut up and pay attention, they can appear at any time." silently the friends walked past, keeping a close eye on the grunts as the went until one sneezed. A flinch and a pause as the male grunt wiped his face cleaned with his jacket sleeve, the female wrinkled her nose in disgust. She smacked the boy in the face sending his hat flying.

Behind him.

They were totally exposed as the male turned around to retrieve his hat. He eyes went wide, he pointed to the group.

"There they are!!!" the female spun around, she gasped and reached for her poke ball, Steel quickly acted, commanding Seaa to perform a smokescreen. A thick black smoke flooded the area, the group made a quick run for it until a shrill "Pidgey use gust!" wind was wiped up into spirals, clearing the area. The grunts were once more visible and their mini army of Pidgeies.

"Pidgey! Attack, use tackle!" in union the birds flew up then swooped down, slamming them selves into the trainer's pokemon.

"Clefa Star, Sing!!" Brass commanded, Steel followed up with a string shot from Kate. The birds were lulled to sleep, they fell to the grounds with a series of thuds and were bounded together by the bug pokemon's threads.

"You stupid Pidgeies! Get up!" the woman shrieked infuriated, but the birds did not stir in the slightest. Galvin pointed to a near by tree, Scyther easily sliced it in half, the severed tree tumbled down with a loud crash and a chorus of snapping branches, effectively blocking the path.

"This is out chance!!! Run!!!" swiftly the trio and their pokemon made a mad dash for the building, the doors flew open, the guard was suddenly startled awake by the noise.

"Hey! Don't-" but at last he was too slow, the kids and their pokemon burst through the door waiting on the other side of the building, startling the sleeping trainers in the building. The sleepy trainers shrugged it off and returned to their sleep, unaware that there ever were any Rune grunts in the woods at all. As for the three heroes ran until they were in the city, in a populated area like Pewter city they would be safe. Safety in numbers was their best bet after that whole stunt.


	4. Chapter Three

Brass gasped in horror.

It could not be true!!

No! No! Noooo!

…

But it was, Steel and Galvin already had their badges! Steel's badge was pinned to the strap of her backpack and Galvin was cleaning his hexagon shaped badge, the boy placed it into the sterling silver badge case and pocketed the cloth he was using for cleaning. A smirk crossed Galvin's face.

"Hey Brass, what's taking you so long? We got our badges, how about you?"

"Uh," the brunette boy shifted his eyes about. "I totally got it. Yeah."

"Good, well Steel and I are going out to the Museum. Have fun by yourself." the duo exited the PokeCenter with Steel waving, leaving Brass to sweat in peace.

Badge! He had to get his badge soon! It wasn't like they were going to leave with out him… but still he needed to get one ASAP! Brass rushed up to the counter, Nurse Joy bowed respectfully and accepted his Pokémon. A few minutes later she returned his pokéballs to him.

"We hope to see you again!" the woman bowed once more. Brass was always disturbed by that statement the nurse gave as she retuned the Pokémon to their trainers. Was she really hoping for their Pokémon to get hurt? It was work for her but still; it's kind of morbid to hear that.

The boy walked out of the center knowing he was screwed. He only had a Charmander and a Clefairy; against Brock's Pokémon he wouldn't do any good. Flaming Billy was a fire type and fire wasn't truly affective against rock, Clefa Star's metronome could produce effective results but was unreliable. Still, he had heard that a Charmander could learn skull bash or steel claw… Both of those would be affective against the rock Pokémon, the next question was where would he train? He couldn't go in the forest; well it was more of a he WOULDN'T. The suddenly recalled a patch of grass, Brass immediately ran off to train.

Yes! It would be perfect! There wouldn't be a bug in the grass at al-

That was until a lone Weedle popped its head out of the tall grass, Brass shrieked and commanded Flamin Billy to burn the bug, which he complied with. With his job done the salamander looked up to his trainer eager to do more combat and burning of things. Brass sighed it was the best he could do, at least it wasn't crawling with bugs like the forest.

And so Brass began his rigorous training efforts, training both Clefa Star and Flaming Billy, slapping down his foes and burning them. Trainers that passed by gave the boy a questioning look as he cried out hysterically whenever a low-level bug Pokémon popped out of the grass.

He later returned to the Pokémon Center, but his friend had not returned, it seemed they weren't kidding, they really went to the museum after all.

.  
..  
…  
..  
.

Steel pressed her face against one of the many glass cases; her eyes sparkled, inside the cases were dulled evolutionary stones and fossilized remains of Pokémon. Positioned next to the fossils were artistic renderings of the diseased Pokémon. With out tearing her eyes away from the case she grabbed Galvin and dragged him over.

Her finger excitedly jabbed at the glass before a Helix fossil, a fossil that looked very much like a curled shell of sorts, and the accompanying picture of a small pale blue creature that had many tiny tentacles and huge yellow eyes with giant gaping black pupils, on its back was a matching shell.

"Isn't it cute?!" Steel swooned

"It's not my kind of thing, but kind of…" She gave him a look that crossed annoyance and rage, she then attempted to hug the glass case.

"Oh what I would do to hug one of these and place it upon my team with love and joy…" she sighed contently. Galvin glanced to one of the security guards; he just looked at the two of them oddly. Galvin nudged his friend, Steel looked up at him and blinked, he pointed to the guard leading her to a realization of the silliness she was doing. Steel stood up stiffly and waved at the man. He just stared.

"Don't do that again…" Galvin sighed.

"Aw!!! But I wanted an Omystar!"

"Alright, but hugging museum artifacts isn't good. I'm pretty sure it counts as an illegal act." The girl huffed and crossed her arms.

"I was hugging the case not the fossil…" she grumbled, Galvin placed a hand on her head and sighed.

"You know what I mean…"

"Humph! I'll get an Omystar one day! Just you wait!" Galvin just sighed and dragged the girl off to a different part of the museum.

Back with their Entomophobia friend Brass, he completed his training and walked to the gym with a proud grin on his face, as for behind him was a Charmeleon equipped with the attack Steel Claw. He pushed open the door and gazed upon the gym, there were two paths carved out of stone, one leading straight forward to Brock but that path was protected by the gym leader's only trannie or lackey, heck Brass didn't know, but the other path lead straight to Brock without anyone blocking his way.

Brass knew what he must do; clearly it was to take the path right to Brock. The boy approached the gym leader, he pointed to the Gym leader, who was sitting on the floor crisscross.

"Brooooock!!!" the man didn't even bother to look up

"You don't have to yell, I'm right here." Brock stated bored, he pulled himself to his feet and dusted his green cargo pants. "So, let us begin!"

Pokémon Trainer Brass vs. Gym Leader Brock

"Sweet!! Flamin Billy go!!" the two trainers threw pokéballs, a floating rock took centerfield before Brock and a red salamander with a bump on the back of its head stood before Brass, it waved its sharp talons at its opponent to threaten it.

"Start off with a Steel Claw!" the right arm and talons of the Pokémon glowed silver, in seconds they became steel plated and smashed right into the face of the rock Pokémon. The Geodude went flying and crashed right into the ground, but Brock's Pokémon was hovering once more in seconds, and leader and Pokémon nodded at each other. Geodude already knew the plan; it quickly swooped down and scooped up some rocks.

"Geodude! Use Rock Throw!" The rock launched its ammo to the salamander who did all he could to avoid the rocks but unfortunately he was pegged on his head and buried under stones cutting a huge chunk of the Pokémon's health.

"Flaming Billy!!!" Brass cried in horror. Did his Pokémon faint? Was it critically hurt? Brock smirked.

"You should have thought this plan through, using a fire type against my ground and rock Pokémon!" Brass lowered his head in shame. It was all over now…

Suddenly Flaming Billy burst from the pile of stones, sending them flying around the arena. Brass grinned.

"Billy!! You're alive!!!" the Pokémon snorted smugly. "Alright! Steel Claw again!!!" Flaming Billy dived down for the attack and struck Geodude once more, this time knocking it out. Geodude fell to the ground with a loud thud, Billy returned to his trainer, causally flicking his flaming tail about.

"You were lucky with your Charmeleon, but I'd like to see it to sand up to Onix!!" Brock let out his last Pokémon, a giant snake composed of stones. It leaned down and let out a fierce roar. Brass gulped, he shook his head. No time for fear! This Onix must be kocked down!

"Flamin Billy, go for the kill! Steel Claw!"

"Onix, Dig!" the stone snake dove into the ground head first, easily creating a tunnel for himself. Brass flinched. This was not good! Brock's Onix could be anywhere under their feet, and it could strike from anywhere and they wouldn't even know it!!

The Pokémon clearly took this to its advantage; it burst from the ground and held Flamin Billy in a tight hold not allowing the Pokémon to brake free. Brock smirked as Onix squeezed tighter on its pray.

Brass clenched his jaw; he had to think of something fast. He panicked and shouted an unlikely attack.

"Ember!!!" Flames spewed and lapped Onix in its face, causing it to drop the Charmeleon. "It worked…?" Brass grinned "Alright it worked! Now hit it hard with a Steel Claw!" Flaming Billy struck, he nailed its target in the head and landing a critical hit.

Onix fainted!

Brock stared wide-eyed. Brass ran across the field to hug his Pokémon with pride.

"You did it Flaming Billy!!! We won!" Brock chuckled.

"Seems so and as proof of your victory," the gym leader walked up to Brass and placed a gym badge of his own into the hand of the boy. Overjoyed Brass took the badge and ran right out of the building, making a beeline to the museum to show it off to his friends.

Unfortunately for him, they already left the museum.


	5. Chapter Four

"The nearest town? Well it would be Cerulean city," the pink haired nurse smiled "so if you go through Mt. Moon you should arrive at the city with in a few days!"

"Mt. Moon?!" Brass gasped, he picked up his Clefairy and hugged it. "Hey little buddy! We are going to Mt. Moon!" the pokemon seemed to sparkle, literally, over the news. His home? They were going to his original home?

"Clefa!!!" the start shaped pokemon leapt onto its master's face and hugged him; Brass removed his beloved pokemon from his face and embraced it. He burst out the doors of the PokeCenter, getting the head start. This was exciting! He had heard stories from his father of the Clefairies, how they were believed to come from space bearing a special stone that could trigger evolution in their species and many other pokemon.

If he got a stone he could evolve Clefa Star when he was ready to evolve. Brass grinned at the thought of that.

\+ + +

Steel looked around, she could not put her finger on it but something was surely off about this mountain range, there was not a single pokemon in sight. Suddenly something grabbed her by her wrist, she blinked and looked for whoever it was.

"Pay attention bone-head." Galvin sighed. "Nearly walked into a wall." She looked up; indeed, there was a wall right in front. How silly it would have looked if she walked right into it!

"Sorry Galvin, I was thinking!" he shook his head. Some times that girl could be so dumb… he let go of her wrist and kept on walking, occasionally glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. She was looking for something… he looked back in front of him where Brass and his Clefairy danced around looking for pokemon and stones. Their search was not going well.

The boy frowned.

"Guys! I can't find any pokemon or stones!"

"Maybe you're just scaring them off!" Steel teased

"No. YOU ARE." he shouted back

"Don't even start." Galvin grumbled. They stuck toughs out at each other and followed the elder boy. Not a single one spoke and suddenly a light shined in Galvin's face. He winced.

"What the?!"

"It's those kids again!"

"Get them!"

"Rune!" Brass hollered, the two of the three friends shrieked and ran away. Rune chased after them, yelling threats of death. Brass reeled around a corner; he quickly whipped his head around his surrounding. A ladder! Yes, this was perfect!

"Guys! This way!" as fast as they could the three climbed down the ladder, Steel flushed.

"Don't look up my skirt!!!"

"No one is loo-" suddenly Steel's foot slipped, she waved arms trying to maintain balance but that failed utterly and she slammed into Galvin who landed on Brass, who just got off the ladder. The trio all groaned in pain.

"WHEN WE GET DOWN THERE YOU BRATS ARE DEAD!!!" The grunt shouted down at the kids, he and his accomplice scrambled down the ladder. He stopped mid step to crane his neck and bellow once more at the kids. "YOU HEAR?! DEAD!!!"

With this head start the pre-teens made a run to safety as fast as their legs could carry them but Brass skid to a halt, there was a hole in the ground, so big that he could not maneuver around it. Galvin came to a stop behind him; the sandy haired boy looked over his friends shoulder.

If they fell, it would be some fa-

To their surprise, Steel slammed right into them sending them all over the edge and falling into darkness. They all shrieked until they could be heard no longer. The Runes arrived on scene chuckling.

"Hahaha! With a fall like that they are sure to be dead!"

"Let's report to boss, she'll probably be pissed that we didn't get fossils but learning that some intruders got killed off due to their reckless behavior will please her." the two grunts walked off chuckling to themselves.

\+ + +

…

..

.

..

…

Galvin opened his eyes and winced. His arm hurt but he could tell nothing was broken, his back hurt and someone was on his arm. Turning to face whatever it was he discovered is we Steel… with a Helix fossil on her face. He removed the fossil from her face, which was bruised with a thin trail of dried blood crawling down the left side; careful to place the fossil down Galvin shook her.

"Steel wake up," she did not stir. He sighed and picked up the fossil once more with his free arm. His eyes glanced it over, it was a Helix fossil just as Steel always wanted and it was in perfect condition. Lucky for her.

He managed to wiggle his arm from under her body, now able to sit up properly, the light was little to none but he could tell there was no sign of Brass. With a sigh, he placed the fossil in Steel's backpack, one arm slid under her leg and the other supported her backside. Steel's head rolled to the side, resting upon his chest.

"Idiot…" he muttered entering the darker parts of the cavern. He shuffled his feet with each step looking out for holes in the ground not wanting to fall once more. In front of him was a light, a fire? "Brass? Brass is that you?"

"Galvin?" something shuffled and the light followed the moving object. The two of them met and they grinned, glad knowing that they both were safe. Brass look at Steel baffled.

"What happened to her?"

"Fossil fell on her face, it knocked her out."

"Ouch…" he winced.

"She'll probably be fine with in an hour or so."

"If you say so…" Now with the flaming tail of Flamin Billy Galvin could see his surrounds a little bit better, the walls were lined with black moon stones and fossils, even old amber.

"Wow… where are we Brass?"

"A lower section of the mountain, I think…"

"Maybe this is why the Runes were here?"

"The fossils?"

"Yeah, think about it, there must be hundreds here and what if they had the technology to bring fossilized pokemon back?" Brass paled

"Oh no. No, that would be just a nightmare! Millions of fossilized pokemon back to life and they would destroy cities!"

"Millions might be a stretch but that is a pretty basic idea of what they would do…" he glanced over at Brass and squinted his eyes. "Brass what the hell are you doing?"

"Prying a fossil from the wall, duh. I sure hope it's a Kabuto!"

"I hope you know the difference between a Helix and a Dome fossil then…"

"Yeah…." Brass pulled the fossil out of the wall leaving a matching hole in the wall. He smirked. "Perfect!" he slid it into his bag and looked around for Clefa Star. "You haven't seen Clefa Star have you?"

"Clefa Star? No, I haven't seen him and I just woke up."

"That's interesting, I saw him run off with other Clefairies I think they are making some sort of plan to get rid of Runes."

"Right, well we need to destroy these fossils before Rune can use them." Galvin placed Steel down on the floor and looked around. It was not hard to find a heavy stone. He heaved and lifted it up to bring it down and smash it against the nearest fossil, shattering it to pieces. Brass got the idea, even thought it was cruel; this was the only way to prevent the fossils from being abused. The both let their pokemon out to assist in the destruction, neither of them knew how long they were at it but the deed was finally done and Steel still had not awakened.

"C'mon," this time Brass lifted her up "We have to get out of here."

\+ + +  
On a floor above was an army ready to enter battle, it was a made of both Clefairies and Clefablies. "Clefairy!!" Brass's declared, cheering its comrades then the pokemon rambled onto the subject of pie. He made a note to find his master as soon as possible as he was rather hungry. The star pokemon saluted, Clefa Star jumped off his podium, which was a rock, and marched into battle. The stars marched right into enemy territory, in seconds they were surrounded by greedy Runes.

"Aw man! Clefairies!"

"These guys would make a killer in the markets! Little kids and girls just love Clefairies and Jigglypuffs."

"Get them!" In harmony, the pokemon waggled their fingers, they all stared. What the-

"Back away! It's Metronome!" However, it was too late, the pokemon glowed together and attacks flew left and right. Ember, Hyper Beam, Vine Whip, Explosion and more than any Rune could register.

"Fall back! I repeat! Fall back!" the evil organization fled, they found not a fossil and were over run by an army of pink stars. Oh, the shame and humiliation they would face back at base!

Clefa Star smirked, oh how he would make his master and friends proud!


	6. Chapter Five

Galvin just stared at the man behind the counter with disbelief. This man could not be serious, he truly could not be charging that much for a bike! It was absolutely unreasonable! It was insane! He slammed his palms down on the counter.

"Are you serious? A hundred thousand Poke for a bicycle?"

"Yes. These are the finest bicycles in all of Kanto! The best of the best! They are priced so that everyone understands that!"

"That's just ridicules!" Galvin grumbled. He shoved his hands into his pockets and stomped out of the shop. He grumbled his way back to the Pokemon Center where his friends waited, and he threw himself into a seat and sighed.

"Hundred thousand Poke for a bike…" the two stared in disbelief.

"Why would you charge that much money? How does this guy make a profit?"

"Who knows…" Galvin waved it off and propped himself up in a chair. "Well, bicycles are overpriced and the Gym is closed at the moment. What do we do now?"

"Oooh!" Steel waved her arm around trying to capture his attention. She succeeded and her friend questioned why she would even bother to raise her hand.

"Uh, yes?"

"We can go to Nugget Bridge! I heard its just north of here and if you beat all the trainer you win a special prize!" Galvin nodded to himself after some thought. If this prize was worth the time they could sell it and make a reasonable amount of money. It was always good for a trainer to carry extra money.

"Alright, any objections?"

"Nope." Steel and Brass grinned. Galvin slammed his hands, palm side down, on the table as he stood. He waved a goodbye to the nurse who waved back with her signature smile.

"Goodbye children, I hope to see you again!"

The trio walked northbound, all focused on training, until Brass noticed something. One house was boarded off with cops surrounding it, trying to keep people back. Curiosity over took the boy and he wondered into the crowd.

Crouching low, Brass snuck past the officers and into the small house. To his shock it was in shambles the table was snapped in half, chairs flipped, picture frames littered the floor along with broken glass, every storage device was ripped open and its contents were splayed across the floor. Along with the mess was the supposed victim family and some woman with orange hair and dressed up in a pale blue water proof jacket, matching one piece bathing suit and sandals, and they all stood by a hole in the back wall.

Brass blinked. What the hell happened here?

"Oh, you're back did you-" she turned to face him but stopped her sentence mid-way, this was not the person she was expecting. "Who are you?"

"Uh, my name is Brass, I'm a trainer and I was just wondering-"

"Where the gym leader is at?"

"No, well yes, but for later, but right now I wanted to know what happened…"

"Ah, yes, this household was attacked by some Rune grunts," the woman sighed "the only thing they stole was the TM Dig." she gave a faint smile to Brass. "My name is Misty by the way. Just stay here, I'm going to escort the family out of here and if you just left if would raise suspicion and you would probably get arrested so I'll pick you up when I come back."

"Uh, okay." Brass waved at Misty as she left with the family, he stood there for a moment before staring at the hole in the wall.

That Rune would pay.

….

The camper gulped. Those two trainers were ripping apart the other trainers like they were nothing. The boy of the two walked with his hands in his pocket while a Scyther followed him, hissing at the trainer he just defeated, making the poor lass hugged her fainted Oddish in fear.

"So, are you the last trainer?"

"Y-yeah…" Galvin smirked.

"Alright then," Galvin motioned to the Scyther with his head, the pokemon took a stance before its master, and confidently he rubbed its scythe arms together.

The young trainer let out his prized partner, a Rattata, the small rat excitedly snapped its jaw at its Galvin and his Pokemon, neither of them looked amused. The Camper pointed to his foe, but the Scyther easily slapped the Rattata over the bridge and into the water.

Steel went to its aid and pulled it from the water; the Camper snatched back its Pokemon and ran off nearly in tears. "JERKS!" he screamed as he ran away.

"Drama queen…" Galvin grumbled. The two friends crossed the end of bridge where a man waited with a sack full of golden nuggets.

"Congratulations, you've made it across the bridge-" the man paused, apparently recognizing who he was talking to, and took a step back. "No! It's you two!"

"What?"

"F-f-from the forest!! You were supposed to be disposed of!!"

"A Rune?!" Steel gasped, the man was sweating, he eyed the water behind the two.

"Scyther…" Galvin glared, the Pokemon got the message and readied its scythes, the man, apparently Rune grunt, sprinted right for the water source behind the two friends. He took a leap into the water and allowed himself to be swept away with the current.

"Nut job…" Galvin glanced at the bag of abandoned gold nuggets; he pocketed three, one for him and his two friends.

'I wonder where Brass is… He's pretty far behind…'

"Let's keep going," Steel chimed, ripping him away from his thoughts. "There could be some nice Pokemon ahead!"

"Alright, seems like a reasonable idea." Galvin nodded, the two continued on their way, they had found a few interesting pokemon. (one gave Galvin a hassle to capture.) In the end the Abra escaped leaving Galvin immensely infuriated.

The dirt road lead all the way to a lone house on the water, it was a simple one floor building with a dock (with a boat tied down) next to it.

"Huh.. I wonder who this belongs to…?" Steel pondered the through for only a moment but then shrugged her shoulders and walked right in. It seemed to fly right ever her head the fact that the door was unlocked. Normally something like that was a sign that something bad was happening or happened.

"Wait a minute Steel!!! You should-" but suddenly a scream filled the dusk air. Alarmed, Galvin rushed into the house to find Steel flat one her behind, attempting to crawl away from a Clefairy on all fours. Why was she doing such a stupid stunt? Brass had a Clefairy and yet she wouldn't act like this before Clefa Star…

"Steel what the heck are you-" The Clefairy noticed him and turned around. Galvin's face fell. It had a face. Not the face of a Clefairy. A face of a human. The body of a Clefairy with the face of a human.

'Oh god. What the hell… WHAT THE HELL IS THAT ABOMINATION?!'

"Oh, salutations young trainer! I am B-"

'OH GOD. IT CAN TALK?!'

Needless to say, Galvin screamed and backed away from that… that thing!

"Calm yourself young trainers, I am Bill! I am a true blue pokemanic!"

"You… you're Bill!? But you're a Clefairy!"

"An experiment gone wrong, but we can fix this all too easily." He pointed to the super computer behind him. "All I have to do is get into that pod and you have to press the button at the computer." Steel and Galvin glanced at each other.

"Let's do it, this is freaking me out!"Steel exclaimed. Bill skipped into the pod, door locking close, Galvin activated the pod. Through the pod's small window a light blue glow filtered out, that light vanished from one pod and to the other one.

ding

The pod door slid open and out came… a man in his early twenties with a Clefairy on his left shoulder.

"Much better," he smiled "I must thank you…" The man paused and dug into his pockets to pull out three slips of paper. "Here, tickets to the SS Anne. I don't need them and I'm sure they'll serve you two better than they could of for me any way!"

"Oh, yes, thank you." Steel nearly exploded. SS Anne tickets were super rare and it came into port only every few years. Oh god this was like a MEGA SCORE. Galvin dragged his friend out of the house and waved a goodbye to the man.

"Nice kids, but they should knock more often."

"Clefairy!"

\+ + +

Brass crawled low against the dirt road. He would find that Rune and make him pay. But what bothered him was that it was only a TM that was stolen. Why not anything else? What would Rune want with a TM?

Brass came to a stop and quickly rolled into a bush. Leaning against the tree before him was his target. The Rune. The man was on a phone, apparently talking about the newly acquired dig TM. Brass concluded his hiding spot was awful as he couldn't hear what was being said any news like that would of helped out the officers.

It wasnt the smartest idea, but this man had to be stopped!!! The trainer jumped put of his hiding spot and tackled the Rune grunt. The two wrestled in the dirt, but the adult easily got the upper hand and threw the boy to the ground. Smugly he stepped on Brass's head to pin him down to the ground.

"I'll have to call you back later, I've some thing to attend to here." The man smoothly leaned down to the boy. "So, what are you up to little man?"

"Get off…!"

"Cant quite hear you," the man laughed pressing harder. "You should really speak up boy!!" Brass began to panic, if he didnt do something soon this psycho would smash his skull wide open! He fumbled for a pokeball but the man stepped on his had rather harshly he cried out. Tears weld up in Brass's eyes from the unexpected pain. The man only chuckled and rubbed the boy's teary face against the dirt causing more of a mess.

'Agh…! W-well, thats both feet… Maybe I can reach with the other…' the boy attempted to reach for a pokeball when suddenly the man was off of him and struck in the stomach with a rather rough kick. Brass winched and looked up at what attacked him. 'A… a Machop?! He's… he's going to sic a pokemon on me?!'

Attacks came flying in too fast for Brass to block or grab his pokeball to at least try and defend himself. The boy was covered in bruises, even cuts, head to toe and there was a high possibility of broken bones

'It… it hurts so much…' Brass chocked, nearly sobbed, in pain. His world went black with the smirking grin of the grunt above him. Eyes slipped closed and they boy was to sleep, most possibly forever…

"Finish the kid off Machop." The pokmon nodded. Fist raised, it came down, ready to smash the boy's skull when suddenly Brass… grabbed the fist of the pokemon. The two of them jumped. This was…. this was impossible! After a beating like that, the kid shouldn't even be able to move, and yet Brass was. He was standing on his two feet, laughing. Laughing hard.

"What… what the hell is so funny kid?!"

No response.

Brass opened his palms to the man and the rest was history. Flames suddenly lashed out in that area. Brass's body toppled over, seemingly unharmed by the fire, and the grunt went up in flames like a paper exposed to a fire.


	7. Chapter Six

It was sudden and terrifying. A fire broke out by the recently robbed house, that family was unharmed, as Misty evacuated them earlier. The gym leader called out her underlings to aid in the putting out of the fire. One of the pre-teens found two bodies at the scene of the fire, a boy and a Rune.

The Rune's body was burned beyond all recondition; maybe some teeth could be used to tell who this poor man once was. The boy on the other hand was lucky to be alive in such a fire; he was seriously injured with a few light burns.

Misty recognized the boy as Brass and immediately rushed him to the hospital; one of her underlings ran his pokémon to the hospital. Frantically the trainer explained what happened best to their abilities, which with much misfortune, Galvin and Steel overheard.

Leading us to where our heroes are.

"Brass, explain to me what the hell you were thinking!" Brass opened his mouth to speak only to be immediately denied of that chance. "Oh wait I know! You weren't thinking! Why else would you do a stunt like that?!"

"Galvin stop yelling…" He cringed at the tone his friend was giving him while staring down with the utmost rage.

"Do you not realize the grief this has caused us all!? Even you father?!" Brass's eyes went wide. His father knew of what happened?!

"D…dad knows…?"

"He called us! Apparently this whole incident is all over the news and reached Pallet Town! He called out freaking out and wanted to know how you were but the hospital wouldn't let us see you until now. Do you realize how long we waited to get the okay to visit you? Three days." Brass flinched. So that meant that his dad was worrying, probably wheeling around the house impatiently, for three whole days.

"I…I'm sorry. I just wanted to help…" In truth that was just what Brass wanted to do. The brunet boy looked at his bandaged hands with a dishearten look on his face. Galvin sighed. Maybe he was being a little rough with Brass, but he did give everyone a scare.

Steel was crying on hours on end, his father was having a panic attack (and he was sure the other parents of Pallet Town were doing the same thing.) and Galvin himself was mad at himself for just blowing off the fact that Brass was missing for most of the time yesterday. If he actually stopped and searched for him the whole thing could have been easily avoided.

"Brass, you're just a kid. We both know we are lucky to be alive, especially after running into Rune twice. It took all three of us to do that alone and one kid can't take on a Rune, especially you since you are a new trainer."

"…"

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"The door is open," Brass mumbled. The door opened wide to show Steel with a bouquet of daisies and Brass's pokémon. The boy brightened up at the sight of them Clefa Star jumped right onto the bed to cuddle with his master and Flaming Billy wagged his tail delightfully at the bedside. Steel threw her arms around her friend, effectively trapping him in a hug and Clefa in a choke hold.

"Are you okay?! I was so worried!"

"Yeah… I'm fine…" He mumbled into her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry I wasn't there." she pulled away from Brass, taking steps to Galvin's side.

"We should go." the two exited the room, and halfway down the hall Steel burst into tears. She was so glad her friend was alive and well. Galvin threw an arm around her and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. The two of them walked back to the pokémon center, returning to their rented room.

"The doctors said he could check out tomorrow."

"That's… that's nice." she sniffled. Galvin reached for the box of tissues on the nightstand and placed it down next to Steel. There was a moment of silence as Galvin rummaged through his bag for his book. "I got my butt handed to me by Misty, she was really strong… and I lost my cool." Steel brought up in a try to change subjects, which seemed to fly over Galvin's head.

"Maybe you were thinking about Brass during the battle." He replied absent mindedly as he flipped to his booked marked page. Steel pouted as she fell onto her back, resting her head against her pillow. "Well you shouldn't worry, the faster you go to bed and the sooner you can see him."

"Fine… good night Galvin."

"Night Steel."

\+ + +

Galvin woke up early that morning to pick Brass up from the hospital and when Steel woke up, seeing neither of her friends around, she decided that she should train to battle Misty. Not before long Steel trained her pokémon so hard that Bubbles evolved into a Wartortle, she congratulated her pokémon and they head back to the pokémon center where the two of them were healed.

After healing up she reunited with Galvin and Brass, who she captured in a gigantic bear hug. The trio then left for the Gym together.

Brass and Galvin took a seat in the stands by the pool, with Galvin assisting Brass though, with Steel's bag in their possession. Steel then dived into the pool with Bubbles and Seaa leading her. One by one they took out an underling of Misty and the loser took a seat on the stands with Steel's friends. The two made quick work to reach the other end of the pool where Misty waited; Steel pulled herself out of the water and twisted her long hair, wringing the water out of it, while Bubbles kept his eyes on his target.

"Seems like you're back again Steel and you brought a little cheer squad for yourself!" Misty grinned with her arms crossed, examining her friends. "Oh hey Brass!" She called recognizing one of them, she waved at the boy and he awkwardly waved back.

"Hey! I'm over here!! Let's fight!" Steel pouted. That woman was supposed to pay attention to her not Brass. Brass was not the challanger! She was!

Misty nodded.

"Right, right, let's begin."

Lass Steel vs. Gym Leader Misty!!

The gym leader grabbed a pokeball from her jacket pocket and threw it into the pool. A flash of light came from under the water, illuminating the pool, and a tan star shaped pokémon with a red gem at the center of its body burst from the water.

"STARYU!!!"

"Seaa, you're up!" Steel's Horsea peeked out the water and happily cried its name. Bubbles looked at her questioningly. "Don't worry Bubbles, you're my secret weapon!"

"He isn't quite secret since I can see him." Steel and her two pokémon glared at the woman.

'Urggg. I'm SO kick Misty's butt this time! Nothing will stop me! Steel Selma of Pallet Town!!'

"Seaa, use agility!"

"Counter with camouflage Staryu!" diving under the water the sea horse's speed increased, he charged for the star only for it to vanish from sight. Startled, Seaa excreted a messy cloud of black ink causing a seeing disability for both sides of the battle field.

"Staryu use Rapid Spin to get rid of the ink in the water!" following commands the water spired around its creator, making a whirlpool of sorts, that started to pull Seaa towards it. Steel bit her lip. Maybe, just maybe, they could use this to their advantage.

"Seaa! Let it suck you in!" her pokémon looked at her if she was insane. "Just trust me!!" Seaa made the choice to be pulled in instead dive right into it. "Now, focus energy!" A golden light enveloped the Horsea, knowing Misty; she would try to prevent the usage of the focus energy by disrupting Seaa's concentration.

"TACKLE!!"

"AURORA BEAM!!" Misty's eyes went wide, an attack like that could only be learned through breeding. Maybe this girl was more tactical then she originally let on. The gym leader smirked as her pokémon sank, frozen solid, to the pool floor.

"Congratulations Steel, you defeated one of my pokémon…" Suddenly Staryu shattered its ice prison; it burst from the water and struck down Seaa with a powerful rapid spin. Seaa floated at the pool surface and Steel gasped horrified. "Or so you thought."

Steel quickly recalled Seaa and let Bubbles swim into center field, the Wartortle bared it's fangs as a warning to its foe. Staryu laughed at the turtle and attacked with another rapid spin and Bubbles quickly withdrew into his shell, taking no damage.

"Staryu, use swift!" the red gem in the center of the pokémon flashed brightly and golden stars shout out from it, pelting Bubbles. The turtle pokémon did all it could to withstand it and dove under the water waiting for its next command.

"Bubbles, bite it!" Grinning, he snapped his jaws and burst from the waters, smashing its body against the star and bit it right on the red gem. Now it was Misty's turn to gasp horrified. It wasn't known to many trainers but the Staryu's red gem was a valuable and powerful source of attack but also its weak point. Staryu quickly slapped Bubbles away and attacked with another rapid spin, catching him off guard. Bubbles crash landed into the water once more but he now seemed aware that that gem must be destroyed.

"Bubbles!? Bubbles where are you?!" Steel called. Her pokémon resurfaced underneath its target, assaulting it with another bite attack, although this time critical. Taken off guard the attack caused great damage for the star pokémon, but Bubbles did not stop there. Following up with a rapid spin he smashed the star to the bottom of the pool. Finally defeated, the star floated upwards to the top of the pool.

"…"

"…"

"Staryu is unable to battle; Steel Selma of Pallet Town is the winner!!" Steel let out a gleeful squeal and dived into the pool, giving Bubbles a back breaking hug.

"We did it buddy! We won!!!"

"War." He replied with a cocky grin and a nod of the head. Misty returned her pokémon and joined Steel in the pool. She extended a hand to her.

"Congratulations." Steel took her hand and shook it excitedly. Misty chuckled; reaching into her pockets she pulled out her badge and placed it into Steel's open palm. "That's the Cascade badge and pokémon up to level thirty will obey you, even the traded ones."

"This is so cool!!!!" then a thought occurred to her. "Oh, Galvin and I already defeated you so now it looks like it's Brass's turn!" Brass groaned in the stands. He could never win could he…? Misty on the other hand laughed and waved once more.

"I guess I'll be seeing you soon Brass!"


	8. Chapter Seven

Only if that lazy guard let them through to Saffron city but for some odd reason, because he was thirsty, he refused to let them through at all. That just didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense, but because this man refused the trio had to find another path to get around that lead the discovery of the Underground Path 5-6. The walk to the other end took about two hours and once the trio exited they were blinded by the afternoon sunlight.

"Aghhhhh!! I'm dyiiiiiing!!!" Steel cried out and flailed her arms in an exaggerated manor. Her two friends looked at her oddly before walking down the dirt road to the town; she shortly blushed and followed after them. Just up ahead was Vermilion City, the biggest, and most likely the only, port town in Kanto. The salty sea air crashed against the people, waves nipped at the docks and the loud howling whistle of the SS Anne's blew as it pulled into port.

"Wow! Just look that that ship!"

"Holy crap! It's so huge; I bet it can hold hundreds of trainers! Maybe thousands!"

"Take a good look at it for now" Galvin frowned as he marched to the Poké Center. "We won't be able to boar until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?! Why tomorrow?!"

"Ship boards tomorrow and since they're cleaning it today, no one is allowed into port." Steel and Brass frowned and crossed their arms, seems like getting a closer look at the ship was a high hope on their list of things to do.

Besides a gym battle.

Steel pouted as she looked around. To the east she noticed something; some old man was plowing away at some plot of land with the help of a Machop.

To the west was an interesting little building with a sign. She went in for a closer look, the outside shape of it made it look like it was a shrine or a church but to her surprise it turned out to be a Pokémon Fan Club. Steel grinned, maybe it would be a good way to spend some time she entered the building. She was immediately greeted with loud music, the cries of pokémon and the chatter of people.

Steel eagerly walked around the room and looked at all the pokémon. She was in awe of all the different types; there were even ones from Hoenn! She rushed up to the tank, clapping her hands. Water pokémon! Oh the glorious water types!

"A Corsola!! Oh!!! Even a Cloyster!! How so cool!!" Steel did a happy little dance and sighed in joy. Oh yes, this was a perfect day. A laugh came from behind and she reeled around in surprise, the owner of the laugh turned out to be an old man, short and stubby but dressed up nicely in a black suit.

"Was I being loud sir?" She blushed "I'm sorry…"

"Not at all," he smiled "this is a place where pokémon lovers of all types come to gather, a squeal of joy is quite normal." Steel giggled sheepishly and smiled.

"Okay sir, was there something you wanted?" she took a step aside "did you come over to see the tank?" he chuckled and shook his head.

"No, no my dear, I'm the owner of this fine establishment!"

"Oh!! Really?"

"Why indeed I am and I've come here to show you something, since you my dear… you are special."

"Huh?" Steel blinked. "Like… a special member or something?"

"No, no, no…" the man shook his head. "I can't quite put it into words but… I have this feeling, so let's get going." The man turned his back and walked away. Steel wasn't sure what to do, follow some weird old man to some secluded area or… stay here and stare at the pokémon. Honestly, she liked the idea of the pokémon, but for whatever reason, she followed the old man.

The two of them walked to a set of double doors to the back of the club house. The doors were chained and locked tightly with a heavy duty lock; the man pulled a key from his pocket. From the looks of it, it was once brass but now black and green with age. Despite its old age it easily fit into the lock and turned, the locks and chains clattered to the ground loudly but the party goers and club members did not notice at all.

Steel took a cautionary glance over her shoulder, still no one noticed, and followed in after the man. Plunged into darkness, she nervously clutched her backpack strap but thankfully the blackness did not last long as another set of doors opened up into another room.

Steel's mouth went agape and arms fell to her side.

She was in a church? Walking down the aisles of pews Steel looked around herself, the maroon carpet and the white pained pews with red velvet cushions were clean as a whistle, not a thread out of place and the paint wasn't chipped, and in fact it looked like it was recently redone.

Steel's gaze rose to the windows all were made of stain glass, all so colorful and beautiful, two tall ones to the left and right of the room.

Birds of ice, thunder and fire.

Dogs of thunder, fire and water.

Sadly that was all she was able to identify but still something was off. It seemed to be missing the trio of Unova, but if she paid better attention she would have noticed between the tips of the two tall windows was a single circle show casing a single member of the trio.

And that there was one below the alter's magnificent stain glass window, unlike the others, four pokémon were depicted here, still none that Steel could identify.

"What is this place…?" Steel finally asked "Where are we?"

"A long abandoned shrine, maybe a chapel." Came the old man's voice, Steel looked to her left to find the man seated in a pew. "My family has watched over it for years but we don't know what for but… we felt something important from it. At least, no one knew until recently."

"Recently, you know?" Steel pondered. "What was it used for?"

"For the people to give thanks to their savors, by judging by which region it stands on, most people came to leave offerings for the savors of Kanto."

"Who were these savors mister?"

"They say the savors of Kanto were called Aricuno, Zapdos and Moltres." Steel blinked, ancient saviors were once named after pokémon?

"Oh…" the girl looked to the windows once more, but this time with the framed photo of a young boy. "I see, I thank you very much for inviting me sir!" the man smiled and reached into his pocket to pull out four slips of paper.

"Take these with you, you will help you more than they could help me." Steel took the papers an looked at them. Much to her surprise they were bike vouchers! With enough for Brass and Galvin, they all could get a bike now! She smiled brightly and waved a goodbye to the man, she placed the slips of paper into her backpack along with the frame and she rushed out of the room.

She had to tell Galvin and Brass about this!

"Thank you Sir!!! Bye!!"

The doors closed behind her and the old man smiled. Suddenly there was a pop and in his place was a Gastly.

"Nice girl, she'll make a fine Articuno…" the little Gastly floated to the alter with its ghostly body leaning downwards, as if it was bowing. "O savors of our kingdom, let us live forever more. Let our young heroes be just like the ones before them…"


	9. Chapter Eight

"Please enjoy you're stay on the S.S. Anne." The attendant smiled, behind the smiling Galvin Steel and Brass were jumping around in glee, finally. Finally they were on the S.S. Anne, the coolest cruise ship ever! Although for the moment the ship was being used for a researcher convention, there were still tons of cool things to do on the ship!

A plastic card was held before their faces making them stop their jumping. Oh right. Room keys.

"Alright, dinner is at six o clock, come back to the cabin at five."

"Why five?" Brass asked

"We can't go to dinner in our clothes." Galvin stated bluntly as they walked to the elevators. Brass frowned and furrowed his brows.

"What's wrong with what I wear?!"

"Brass, our clothes are kinda dirty, I don't think that would go over well on the ship." Steel piped up.

"Oh… but where would we get clothes that are good from?"

"Clothes rental." Galvin stated in a matter of fact.

"You can rent clothes?!" Bass demanded "What kind of backwards place is this?!"

"Renting clothes is quite common." The boy stared at his friends a little longer before walking away, muttering insanity. Steel looked to Galvin and smiled.

"Well, I'm off now! Bye!" maybe the ship changed books for every occasion, family trips could books for all ages, but for researchers there had to be all kinds of books benefiting research. Maybe there was one about the past of the regions, about the savors.

Steel closed the book and sighed. That had to be the third one she looked through with no results. For history books they didn't seem to go that far back enough for what she needed. Steel crossed her arms and hummed. Maybe someone else checked out the books for research myths in creation of regions or for information on the heroes?

She looked to the clock, it was still early. A small lunch wouldn't hurt.

Steel took the elevator to the 10th floor of the stop, once she got out of the glass elevators she looked at the map on the wall. According to it the simple restaurant was to the stern, meaning pass the pool to the left. Steel did stop to look at the pool and gasped. It was so huge! Two different medium hot tubs, a giant, but shallow, pool filled with colorful slides and fountains. Probably for children.

Although a swim would be nice for her and her pokémon but, at the moment, the pool was roped off preventing anyone from swimming at all. Her stomach suddenly rumbled reminding her why she even came out here in the first place. Steel blushed and rushed past the line of white chairs and towels.

The sliding glass doors opened up widely and Steel looked about excitedly. The first floor contained mostly different cooking stations, drinks, and side dishes. Tables and booths, both padded with green cushions, lined the windows. The second floor was not very different, many chairs and booths with a privet and rather expensive restaurant.

Steel approached a stand with plates and silverware, taking what she needed she walked to each station. Unfortunately that left her plate rather full and complicated to handle. She walked to the nearest table and took a seat. With a smile Steel began to eat her food, or attempted to, the clatter of plates captured her curiosity. She looked around, taking note of an employee loading dirty plates into a tub. From the back she looked vaguely familiar. Steel couldn't put a finger on it until the woman turned around to face her.

Oh god.

That face. Her face. The Rune of the Viridian Forest.

The two of them stared at each other. Steel abruptly stood up, knocking her seat over.

"I LEFT SOMETHING IN THE LIBRARY. I SHOULD GO GET IT." She shouted. The panicked girl ran out the diner and across the pool deck, she slipped and slid to the hall with the elevators. Steel pounded on the down button but seeing how long it was taking to get an elevator she gave up and ran down the stairs to the eighth floor. She scrambled down the hallway, chanting the room number. To the very end of the halls was the room she and her friends shared

"GALVIN. GALVIN. GALVINGALVINGALVINGALVIN." The door opened and Steel jumped in, she ran to the balcony closed it and locked it, even closed the blinds. She couldn't risk letting a Rune overhear her.

"Uh… Steel what are you doing?" he questioned closing the door behind him.

"Runes!" Steel flailed her arms and screamed in a volume so loud that the neighbors would of reported her if they were even there.

"Excuse me?" Galvin plopped down on his bed by the balcony and he continued to look at her like Ekans were coming out of her head and dancing a marry dance.

"Runes Galvin! Runes! I saw the one from the Viridian Forest; she was on the ship clearing tables!"

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes! She was giving me this evil eye!"

"…" Galvin sighed "Alright, Brass should be here in an hour or so."

"Can't we go after the Runes? Like right now?"

"No, the ship set sail an hour ago and declaring that there is a Rune, and maybe more, without any proof might cause a panic or get us in trouble… maybe both."

"But I know it's her!"

"I think it may be better not to cause a panic."

"Oh all right!" Steel sighed "he better get here soon…"

"Either way we should take our pokémon with us regardless of where we go."

"Even dinner?" Galvin nodded

"Yeah, even dinner."

"Wha'd you mean there are Runes on the boat! That's impossible!" Brass hollered "You saw the security they had when we were getting on the boat!"

"What if Runes took over the boat so they could get the researchers?!" Steel demanded through the bathroom door. "Then it would make perfect sense! They load all their grunts on, the grunts then pose as employees and when the time is right they corner them and take them to their base!"

"Well, when you put it like that it does make sense…" Galvin admitted. The bathroom lock suddenly clicked, Brass muttered something among the lines of finally. The chosen outfit for the night was a simple velvet black gown with a V shaped cut.

"Does it look good?" She asked. Galvin nodded, placing a pair of black heels at her feet. Steel stared apprehensively at them. Oh this was going to be fun. With a huff of determination she placed a hand on Galvin's shoulder to balance herself as she slid a foot into a heel.

"You look fine." He smiled. "It was a nice pick." Galvin offered her a hand. Steel denied it and took a step forward. She could feel her ankles trembled and give away making fall flat on her behind. Brass burst out laughing at his friend while Galvin sighed with a smile and offered his hand once more. Pulling her to her feet he walked her to the vanity.

Steel went to work on her hair as Brass ran into the bathroom to change, a few minutes later it could be heard him screaming and cursing at his injuries. Galvin sighed.

"Do you need help in there?"

"YES."

Brass sat at the table rather bored. For a fancy ship the dinners were a complete drag. All anyone was doing was talking about their boring research or dancing, which was just as much or even more, dull. He picked up his glass of water and swirled it about.

"I wonder where Galvin and Steel went to…" he looked over the railing to the first floor of the dining hall. They could be down there at the ballroom, but that might not be, Steel couldn't dance for squat and Galvin probably couldn't either unless Daisy taught him.

"Just follow my lead." Galvin grunted through his teeth as Steel removed her heel from is foot.

"I'm sorry!" Steel exclaimed, glancing to her feet. "I didn't mean to…"

"I know, I know…" Galvin shook his head. He placed a hand on Steel's hips and guided her once more, Steel soon enough got the hang on it and they continued to dance until the band on stage came to an end. The crowd broke into a light clap and returned to their seats, for Steel and Galvin they were greeted by a child.

"You two danced together?" Brass made a face, a mix between disbelief and amusement. "That's so gross."

"Please grow up." Galvin grunted leading Brass to snicker even more.

"Why? Are you mad?"

"Annoyed is the proper word." Brass broke into a fit of laughter and giggled. He hooted and cackled as he leaned back in his chair Brass kept it up despite Steel's protests, demanding he calm down and put all four legs of his chair one the floor. Suddenly, Brass made a choking sound, he and chair fell back and hit the ground with a thud.

"Brass!!" Galvin looked around and gasped. Brass wasn't the only one. Half of the dining hall was on the floor, unconscious. Laughter began to fill the three floors. It was hardly cheerful. Mocking. Darkness suddenly shrouded them and a single light lit the stage. It was…

"RUNE!!!" Steel screamed. Galvin looked up to see her hanging over the railing, pointing accusingly to the woman on the stage wearing a team Rune uniform. The researchers were shocked and horrified. How could a Rune get onboard with the ship's tight security?

"Welcome my brilliant friends, you have been chosen!" the single Rune grinned as they spoke into the microphone. "Chosen to aid our leader in her research of PokeSoul." Everyone began to whisper and murmur. Just what could PokeSoul possibly be? Never had single one of them once heard of such a thing. Was it some secret project of theirs?

"I can see your confusion; you must not worry my dear scientist and researchers. Your questions will be answered. PokeSoul is everything, the power to become one with the pokémon. The power of the ancient savors. It is our leader's goal to become one with a pokémon of legend and dominate this tiny region. All that we ask of you is to translate the scriptures of old ages and create all she needs and you will live with your life."  
Steel gasped. That's why she couldn't find any books or information. Team Rune took it all for their own needs!

"As I speak, we are arriving to our research facility and you will meet our master face to face. Enjoy your free time ladies and gentlemen." The Rune bowed with a huge smirk and walked off stage.

Something had to be done fast or they all were in big trouble, especially her and her friends… they would be useless to the Runes, they would most likely kill them! Steel glanced to Galvin, who glanced to her then glared back at the empty stage as panic occurred around the two of them. Half of the ship was incapacitated due to whatever was put into the drinks and the other half was defenseless and was acting crazy in fear.  
Reminded of her drink Steel knocked it over, wetting the green table cloth. (Taking note of this Galvin followed the motion with one hand in his pocket.) Steel then glanced to the handbag in her lap, all four of her pokémon rested inside, Seaa, Bubbles, Kate and Paris, a recently obtained Paras.

…

Yes. This must be done. She and Galvin had to take back control of the ship.


	10. Chapter Nine

"Bubbles use Bubbles!" the Wartortle shot a string of bubbles, which happened to pop in the eyes of Runes, who screamed in pain, and they immediately ran for the nearest source of water to clean their eyes of the burning pain. She managed to escape the dining room, although somewhat reluctantly, in the pursuit of the bridge.

The deeper and deeper she went the heavier the security got, surely the pilot's room couldn't be that far off. Well, indeed it was, down the hall was a door labeled with a gold plate saying Captain's Bridge in cursive. Confidently, Steel swung open the door, but her face fell in a second. On the floor was the body of the captain, in a pool of his own blood.

He was dead. A Rune killed the captain!! Steel clenched her fists and glared to the only other person in the room. From the back she couldn't tell if it was male or female, whoever it was, they were… strange. The wheel of the ship was moving on its own while glowing purple surrounded it and they had a… a tail? It was moving on its own and flicking around.

Holy hell, it was real…

What the hell was this person?!

The redhead turned around to reveal that they were a woman, she flipped her long ponytail over her shoulder and stared at Steel.

"All passengers are supposed to be in the dining hall."

"What are you?" Steel asked after swallowing a lump.

"Mewtwo." She gasped. She had heard rumors of that Mewtwo, it was a pokémon. It was one of a kind, a science experiment gone wrong, and the terror of the Cerulean city Caves.

"How can that be? Mewtwo… Mewtwo is a pokémon!"

"No matter."

Mewtwo blasted Steel with a psychic blast, striking her down to the ground. Did… did she just hit her with psychic power? Mewtwo swept her arm before her, creating a shroud of mist around her.

"Alright… Go Bubbles!" Mewtwo started at the turtle. She barely blinked and it was sent flying into the wall, leaving him unconscious. Steel grit her teeth and let out Kate, now Butterfree, and commanded it use a sleeping spore. Mewtwo simply used psychic waves to send it back flying to Steel, taken back, she to took in some of the green powder and Kate was shot down.

That was two of her four pokémon, might as well be three since Seaa wouldn't even be able to battle properly without the water. Steel was starting to feel the effects of sleeping powder as Paris was defeated.

"Forget the Horsea. You are defeated."

Well damn, she knew about Seaa the whole time…

"What are you?!"

"…I will tell you for what little time you have left, you are no threat to me. I have obtained the powers of Arcus, the forbidden power of PokeSoul… human and pokémon as one."

Steel gasped faintly. This woman… she managed to capture Mewtwo and become one with it? This… this was just impossible!

"I can see boy your face, despite your pathetic struggle to stay awake, you are quite perplexed about this, don't question it so hard. This is something everyone could do, I was directly exposed to the radiation of the tablets and I gained more than enough power to control Mewtwo." Steel couldn't register anything properly as she slipped unconscious, the words made no sense, she could feel her body lift into the air and dangle. "Now to end your troublesome antics…"

Mewtwo's finger's curled slowly, the purple hand that held a tight hold on Steel's head added more pressure to her skull. Before the deed could be done she was taken surprise by a Scyther, Galvin's Scyther, needless to say it was not pleased with his master's dear friend being treated like this. It hissed and readied its scythes.

She would have easily gotten rid of the bug if it wasn't for yet another interruption, the coast guard arrived with their sirens wailing as loud as they could. She grunted. She must not be seen now by the authorities but first the kid… but Steel and the Scyther was gone. She tsked. This was unbecoming. With a snap of fingers and in a whirl of purple the wheel jerked to the right, shaking the ship as she vanished.

Galvin sat by pitifully as he watched his two friends placed upon stretchers and taken away, Brass had some sort of non-lethal poison in his system like most of the passengers while Steel suffered mild head trauma from… whatever she was doing. He received the lower of the damage scale, simple scratches and bumps.

"Ga…l…vin…" Steel called from her stretcher, reaching out for her. The medics stopped in surprise, they were sure she was out cold. Galvin pushed through the crowed to her side. He gingerly took her hand, putting on weak smile.

"Yes?"

"Mew…"

"Mew?"

"Mewtwo… it was Mewtwo." That was all she said before she slipped into sleep once more with a limp hand falling from Galvin's grasp, hanging off her stretcher. Galvin frowned.

Mewtwo.

What could that even mean?


	11. Chapter Ten

"Bubbles use Bubbles!" the Wartortle shot a string of bubbles, which happened to pop in the eyes of Runes, who screamed in pain, and they immediately ran for the nearest source of water to clean their eyes of the burning pain. She managed to escape the dining room, although somewhat reluctantly, in the pursuit of the bridge.

The deeper and deeper she went the heavier the security got, surely the pilot's room couldn't be that far off. Well, indeed it was, down the hall was a door labeled with a gold plate saying Captain's Bridge in cursive. Confidently, Steel swung open the door, but her face fell in a second. On the floor was the body of the captain, in a pool of his own blood.

He was dead. A Rune killed the captain!! Steel clenched her fists and glared to the only other person in the room. From the back she couldn't tell if it was male or female, whoever it was, they were… strange. The wheel of the ship was moving on its own while glowing purple surrounded it and they had a… a tail? It was moving on its own and flicking around.

Holy hell, it was real…

What the hell was this person?!

The redhead turned around to reveal that they were a woman, she flipped her long ponytail over her shoulder and stared at Steel.

"All passengers are supposed to be in the dining hall."

"What are you?" Steel asked after swallowing a lump.

"Mewtwo." She gasped. She had heard rumors of that Mewtwo, it was a pokémon. It was one of a kind, a science experiment gone wrong, and the terror of the Cerulean city Caves.

"How can that be? Mewtwo… Mewtwo is a pokémon!"

"No matter."

Mewtwo blasted Steel with a psychic blast, striking her down to the ground. Did… did she just hit her with psychic power? Mewtwo swept her arm before her, creating a shroud of mist around her.

"Alright… Go Bubbles!" Mewtwo started at the turtle. She barely blinked and it was sent flying into the wall, leaving him unconscious. Steel grit her teeth and let out Kate, now Butterfree, and commanded it use a sleeping spore. Mewtwo simply used psychic waves to send it back flying to Steel, taken back, she to took in some of the green powder and Kate was shot down.

That was two of her four pokémon, might as well be three since Seaa wouldn't even be able to battle properly without the water. Steel was starting to feel the effects of sleeping powder as Paris was defeated.

"Forget the Horsea. You are defeated."

Well damn, she knew about Seaa the whole time…

"What are you?!"

"…I will tell you for what little time you have left, you are no threat to me. I have obtained the powers of Arcus, the forbidden power of PokeSoul… human and pokémon as one."

Steel gasped faintly. This woman… she managed to capture Mewtwo and become one with it? This… this was just impossible!

"I can see boy your face, despite your pathetic struggle to stay awake, you are quite perplexed about this, don't question it so hard. This is something everyone could do, I was directly exposed to the radiation of the tablets and I gained more than enough power to control Mewtwo." Steel couldn't register anything properly as she slipped unconscious, the words made no sense, she could feel her body lift into the air and dangle. "Now to end your troublesome antics…"

Mewtwo's finger's curled slowly, the purple hand that held a tight hold on Steel's head added more pressure to her skull. Before the deed could be done she was taken surprise by a Scyther, Galvin's Scyther, needless to say it was not pleased with his master's dear friend being treated like this. It hissed and readied its scythes.

She would have easily gotten rid of the bug if it wasn't for yet another interruption, the coast guard arrived with their sirens wailing as loud as they could. She grunted. She must not be seen now by the authorities but first the kid… but Steel and the Scyther was gone. She tsked. This was unbecoming. With a snap of fingers and in a whirl of purple the wheel jerked to the right, shaking the ship as she vanished.

Galvin sat by pitifully as he watched his two friends placed upon stretchers and taken away, Brass had some sort of non-lethal poison in his system like most of the passengers while Steel suffered mild head trauma from… whatever she was doing. He received the lower of the damage scale, simple scratches and bumps.

"Ga…l…vin…" Steel called from her stretcher, reaching out for her. The medics stopped in surprise, they were sure she was out cold. Galvin pushed through the crowed to her side. He gingerly took her hand, putting on weak smile.

"Yes?"

"Mew…"

"Mew?"

"Mewtwo… it was Mewtwo." That was all she said before she slipped into sleep once more with a limp hand falling from Galvin's grasp, hanging off her stretcher. Galvin frowned.

Mewtwo.

What could that even mean?


	12. Chapter Eleven

Most of the heroes' night, with the exception of Steel, was spent trying to explain what happened to the cops. They were almost arrested until Nurse Joy, who left the center as soon as it happened to get help, explained they were survivors of the whole massacre. The security tapes proved the nurse's claim and pointed out the true master mind of the slaughter. The leading officer instructed one of her underlings to walk the trio through the Rock Tunnel after a proper meal and night rest.

The officer on the job was a talkative fellow but seemed to be a little too into trying to figure out what happened at the center last night rather than keeping quiet about the traumatic event. The group came to a silent agreement that he was put up to it by the head officer. Regardless, not many of the trainers in Rock Tunnel advanced them with a police officer leading their way, that was another story once they left the tunnel, the officer gave a salute and reentered the tunnel and immediately a trainer came up to Brass and demanded a battle.

The trainer was promptly defeated and cursed, vulgarly, and damned him for being an outsider. The young trainer ran south, in the direction of Lavender Town. They followed and was greeted with something odd, a town in the afternoon and yet so barren. The grass was brown, the houses were old and the paint was pealing, not a child, adult or Pokémon was in sight. Steel noticed the curtains of a window open slightly and an angry eye glared at her.

The sky suddenly rumbled and crackled causing a downpour of rain and thunder. A collective groan came from Brass and Steel as the trio made a mad dash for the town's small Pokémon center. The first person to give them a smile, and a nervous one at that, was Nurse Joy.

"O-oh, hello and welcome to the Pokémon center, would you like me to heal your Pokémon?" Brass plopped Flaming Billy and Clefa Star's pokeballs on the counter.

"Yes please ma'am." She smile warily and turned to the healing mechanism, and much to Galvin's surprise, dusted it off. Was it really that rare for trainers even came here? Steel seemed to catch on to what he was thinking so she leaned in close and pressed her face to his back.

"It's the Marowak's Curse!"

"The what…?"

"It's the curse of a Marowak killed by Rune, it kidnaps children and then kills them! People hide from the spirit in doors and turn a cold shoulder on outsiders hoping they will be captured instead of them!"

"That's a load of crap." Galvin stated bluntly. Steel gasped.

"It must be true! You saw how everyone was treating us!"

"When I see a ghost I'll believe it."

"Fine! Let's go see one!"

"Oh really?" Galvin gave her a quizzical look. "And just where will find a ghost?"

"At Pokémon Tower! They say the ghost lurks there."

"If it makes you shut up lets go then," Galvin looked to Brass, who was drawing pictures on the dust on the table tops. "Brass, you coming?"

"Uhhh, no I'll pass, I'll just wait for you two." Galvin made a face, probably cursing him for being the lucky one not being dragged off on this stupid adventure with Steel. Brass waved a goodbye and waited a little while longer for his Pokémon. Once they were returned to him the nurse gave him a shy smile. Brass exited the Pokémon center and back into the rain (as if he would stay in a dusty center) and drifted around the town.

Lavender was exceptionally small so there wasn't much to do, until a pokeball crashed into his face. Brass crumpled to the ground, nursing his injured face.

"Get inside stupid!" he looked up and it was the boy he battled not even an hour ago. The boy stared at him with a rather annoyed expression. Brass looked around in a haze, he didn't see anyone, or at least he didn't think so.

"Me?"

"No, the invisible Grafarig next to you." When Brass looked around again the trainer let out a frustrated grunt. "Yes you! Get inside!" Brass walked inside with his head spinning, the young boy slammed the door behind him making Brass jump. As Brass's head cleared up he looked around this place was rather bright and cheery compared to the town, the walls were painted to look like a grassy green field, the green carpeting even helped give this effect, with a bright orange-yellow sun and fluffy white clouds, a white fan hung from the ceiling moving at a slow pace with a bandaged up Pidgey and Sperow perched on it. On the floor were other types of Pokémon roaming around, all badged up as well, and little obstacle courses and toys for the Pokémon.

"Where am I?" Brass suddenly asked.

"My grandpa's house." The boy grumbled.

"Okay, why am I here."

"Because it's raining you idiot, my sister say you outside and told me to bring you in." Brass blinked.

"Oh, well I should probably thank her…" suddenly a bell rang all the Pokémon stopped what they were doing and hobbled to the source of the ring in the next room over. Curiously, Brass followed them, the doorway lead to a dining room and a kitchen. The floor was littered with bowls of Pokémon food and berries of different varieties. Kneeling on the floor was a girl in her teens clapping her hands and encouraging the Pokémon to eat up. She was wearing a simple white summer dress and a pale yellow apron; she had long brown hair tied up in two ponytails and hazel eyes.

Brass had to admit she was kinda pretty…

The girl looked up and noticed him, she smiled.

"Oh hello, I see David was nice enough to listen to me and let you in." she stood up, wiped her hands on the front of her apron and extended a hand to him. "I'm Helena Fuji." Brass took her hand, blushing.

"I-I'm Brass Elliot."

"Nice to meet you." She took her hand from his and put both of her arms out. "Now put them there."

"Put what there?"

"Your clothes of course." She smiled. She was smiling as if there was nothing wrong with that she said. Brass went red and shook his head.

"W-why would I have to do that?!"

"Because you're wet silly, just change into your other clothes and I'll dry your wet ones."

"…Oh." Well, that put him to ease. Why wouldn't she have said that from the beginning? "Well, thank you, but won't that be a waste if you're only drying my clothes?"

"No worries, its laundry day for us."

"I see, well where's the bathroom?" he pointed down a nearby hallway. "Is it this way?"

"Yep, the last room down there." Brass drifted down the hall, he stopped half way. He could hear a sound, a creepy sobbing echo. Oh god. The house was haunted. Wasn't it? He gulped as he reached his destination, the bathroom and the source of the crying/ghostly wail. He slowly opened the door, he saw something move and screamed, whatever it was screamed right back and threw something, which hit him square in the face. Brass staggered back with a bloody nose and looked to the floor to see what hit him…

ohgod

It was a femur bone. An actual femur bone. Brass backed away or tried to, he pressed himself against the wall as the creature came closer and closer to the door. The creature came into view.

…

"Huh? A….Cubone?"

Steel was clinging to Galvin's arm in fear; they had not seen any ghosts at all, instead all they found was a massive amount of channelers chanting to add to that the tower was lit by only candles, the windows were all open with the howling winds making it over all creepy. Galvin was smirking; this was the sixth floor of seven and not a single sign of a ghost.

He motioned to the stairs. "Ladies first." She huffed.

"Don't get cocky! There's still one more floor meaning another chance for a ghost to get us! Or even on our way down!" he laughed and pat her on the head. Oh naïve Steel. Still believing childish fairy tales about ghosts.

"Now, now Steel. Ghosts aren't real, you should have learned this by now…" suddenly a cold chill came over him and Steel. The tense girl smiled and frowned at the same time, clearly the cause was a ghost and well it was a ghost. Steel screamed and hugged Galvin harder, he choked on air felling, what was possibly his lung, rupture.

"There's no ghost! Calm down Steel."

Get out.

He gulped. Oh Arceus. He slowly turned his head to the looming figure behind him. He blinked and proceeded to laugh.

"Oh, it's just a Gastly. Your big scary ghost was just a Ghastly Steel!"

Get out… get out… getoutgetoutgetoutgetout!!! the voice wailed, the temperature dropped steeply and the wind suddenly picked up, throwing everything that wasn't bolted down around like sheets of paper. Galvin and Steel rushed for the stairs and the channelers were going crazy, demanding to know what they did to the ghost as they ran. The duo made it out the building, breathing heavily.

"Never… again."

"Agreed."

"Oh Lanna was hiding in the bathroom again? So cute!" Helena cooed at the Cubone hiding behind Brass's leg. "And she even likes you!"

"You're just scaring her again." David grumbled cleaning up the kitchen and even clean off some of the Pokémon that managed to fall in it's food.

"Me? Scare Lanna? Oh you're so silly David! You know, you should keep her!"

"I should?"

"You haven't noticed but everywhere you've gone she's followed you around the house, see! She's even next to you on the couch." Brass looked to his left and there was the Cubone, hiding behind its bone and a couch cushion. "She never acts like that to anyone, not even grandpa! She must really like you!"

He had to admit it was kinda cute…

"Isnt she your grandfather's though?"

"Oh no, Grandpa doesn't have any Pokémon, he finds abandoned and hurt Pokémon and nurses them back to health. From there he lets them go or gives them to a trustworthy trainer, I think you're trustworthy so I think its okay that you can have Lanna!"

"Gee, thanks." Helena opened the blinds and smiled as the pokemon gathered around.

"Oh look the rain is gone," she returned Brass's clean clothes to him with a shake of hands. "Take care you two." It took him to realize she was now expecting him to get out. He blushed and nodded.

"Yeah, uh, thanks for the meal and letting me come in." Brass placed his clean clothes into his backpack just as he was about to zip it Lanna climbed in, looking at him with big cute eyes. He closed it up partly and pull on his bag, he waved goodbye once more as he left the house. Helena smiled.

"What a sweet boy." She turned to her little brother who scowled. "Don't you think so?"

"Go read your corny book of myths."

Brass entered the Pokémon center to give the Cubone a checkup, he was greeted by his two friends that were both incredibly tired and warn out.

"Oh hey guys, what's happening?" the grunted. "Uh, the nurse was telling me we would have to take an underground path to get to Celadon City…"

"Okay." Brass awkwardly looked away. Did the ghost hunt go that badly for them?


	13. Chapter Twelve

"Damn it." Brass grumbled in the darkness. A slapping sound followed and repeated a few times. "The battery died…"

"I think that nurse gave you a crappy flashlight." Galvin grinned.

"Or bad batteries." Steel chirped.

"Well, it's not like it matters anyway, if we keep going straight we'll reach the stairs at the end." Brass sighed, pressing his hand against the cold wall to guide himself along.

"Or we'll crash into a wall." The boys glanced back at their female companion in the darkness, who grinned. She was so weird sometimes…

"Someone needs to rethink their staffing." Galvin suddenly stated as he walked in a puddle. Cringing, he shook his wet pants leg around, flicking droplets on Steel and Brass.

"Who?"

"Who else? The Saffron City Guard Commission, they won't let anyone pass through the city because they're thirsty that just forces us trainers to use these dark and unlit tunnels."

"Yeah, that whole 'I'm thirsty so you can't pass' thing is stupid…"

"How can they think that's a valid excuse?"

"Hey guys, I think I see the exit!" the lighting was peeking in was a faint orange, meaning a sunset was approaching. Steel picked up the pace and was the first to burst through the Underground Path's door. She looked around her and grinned finding herself standing on a hilltop before Caledon City. Steel took a few steps back, just as Galvin and Brass made it out, and then took off running, she curled herself into a ball and rolled down the hill.

Unfortunately her bag clicked open and her belongings, ranging from stationary to clothes, and all sorts of trainer supplies flew into the air and came crashing down all around her. She didn't seem to mind although as she burst into laughter. The boys walked down the hill as fast as they could to her side, Galvin groaned at the mess she made, one bottle of potion had cracked open on impact and was staining her pair of shorts along with a few pages of stationary. Brass began to collect items with the help of Lanna and returned them to Steel who ceased her giggles as Galvin lectured her about how stupid that stunt was.

"I wonder if my letter got to him yet…" she said out of the blue.

"Woman! Focus!" Galvin snapped.

"I am jeez!" Brass shook his head at the two as he took Lanna into his arms. With a sigh he made his way to the city. Galvin took note of this, shoved Steel's belongings into her bag and dragged her off while still lecturing her.

She was silently hoping Simon's own friends weren't as pushy as her own.

Steel stared at the Pokémon Center washing machine bored. She squinted her eyes. Come one seriously. How long does it take to wash some clothes? Stupid machine. Taking its sweet time. She glanced to the count down on it and made a grunt of annoyance. It said five minutes left ten minutes ago, was this thing so bad it couldn't even predict time right?

What a hunk of junk!

She reentered the main room of the center to find that her two friends had disappeared. But at least they left her a note, in the care of Nurse Joy, who was currently reaching for her pen that fell under the desk making it look like she wasn't there at all.

Steel on the other hand frowned. She got ditched by everyone. Even the nurse.

Well, that's all find and dandy. Nope. No problem at all. This was the big city after all (next to Saffron City) so why not go out and enjoy the sights. Steel marched out of the center proudly, hands on her hips and strutting as she went. When the doors swished close Nurse Joy emerged from under her desk with at least ten pens in hand, she shot the pen filled fist into the air and cheered. The young nurse looked around and sighed. Empty as usual…

All the trainers ever did was go to the city and never spared her a glance.

How depressing…

Galvin had to admit the city was good looking at night, buildings and signs lit up in neon. A building like the Gym was giving off a bright vibrant rainbow glow and a sign situated next to the diner said CASINO blinking in red and blue with yellow lights made the illusion of a gold coin flipping.

Normally Galvin would have cared less about casinos but it was a Rune grunt sneaking around that got his attention. The grunt dived into the alleyway between the buildings, he looked left and right as he moved across the wall, touching and feeling for something. His hand bumped the object and he turned it, a door opened and he entered the building.

Curiously and with Scyther's pokeball in hand, Galvin approached the door and entered the building. Interestingly he found himself in the casino, or assumed he was judging by the slot machine across the room. The grunt glanced around, he slowly lifted up the poster relating to some concert (who really cared anyway) and poked at the… wall? Galvin nearly screamed as hole in the wall opened up, retracted a shelf containing prizes to reveal a secret passage way in the floor tiles.

He would have to make his move now. He sent out Scyther and pointed to the grunt.

"SCYTHER!" the Pokémon charged the man, tacking him to the ground and placed a scythe arm to his neck.

"What the?!"

"Mind explaining what's going on here?" Galvin approached the man, motioning to the trap door then placed his hands in his pockets.

"Nothing is going on you twat!" he raised a brow.

"I don't call a hole in the ground, which was opened by a rather cautious man, nothing." Galvin nodded to his pokémon, which began to mercilessly beat up the man. With the man out cold Galvin took his uniform and returned his Pokémon to its pokeball. He pulled the bill of the hat over his eyes as he climbed down the stairs.

The secret base had to be ten degrees colder than the casino above. The grey and white linoleum tiles reflected his cautious look as he went, he was in the lion's den now but not a Rune could be found. Were they sent off on some sort of mission? Galvin made it a few floors down when he noticed a sign pointing to the left and down a long hallway.

'Conference Room.'

This seemed interesting; maybe a conference was going on. If so he could get a good load of information to report to the police, which they seemed desperate for now days. Not that anyone could blame them for, with one hideous crime after another any form of information was good and it would put him to ease if the Runes were locked away.

Galvin walked a little faster now, approaching the doorway the door opened up for him. Wait, opened up? He came to a dead halt and pretended to act natural, at least the best he could. After a few moments passed and no one exited the room he took cautious steps towards it. Peering in through the crack his suspicions were proven correct. A meeting was occurring.

"How many trainers did you collect from the Rock Tunnel center despite your failure?" a monotone voice questioned.

"About twenty." He could recognize it as the woman from the pokemon center nearly a day or two ago.

"A good sum…" the monotone voice returned. Galvin squinted harder to see the owner. Just barely he saw her, a woman with red hair that she flicked back as she was staring a packet of paper. "Tell me, how are the Cubones doing?"

"Progress is slow Madam Mewtwo."

Mewtwo? Steel mentioned Mewtwo could it be that she was referring to this woman? She met the Rune leader face to face? And it was this very same woman that attacked her?

"Disappointing, dispose of them, they're useless if they can't work fast." Few of the grunts gasped while those higher up on the scale didn't even blink at the implication of murdering baby Pokémon. "We'll need a new breed to progress."

"What about the trainers…?"

"Search them for badges, if they have four or more keep them if they have less dispose of them as well, living and dead. I have no need for a weak trainer."

"B-but didn't you say it varies person to person…? Maybe one of them can fuse with a Cubone!"

"Do not tell me you have gone soft on one of those little rats."

"O-of course not!"

"Then you'll have no problem killing them, I'll make sure to assign you the job." Were… were they really performing such experiments to create abominations? Half Pokémon half human…? And if both trainer and Pokémon didn't meet a certain requirement they would be slaughtered?

This couldn't be real… this was beyond insane!

Or is it? Or is it the perfect truth, humans once lived like that… a haunting laugh follow. Galvin flinched. That was the voice of Mewtwo. She was in his head now?! I suppose now that you know you want to tell the police, don't you? Oh good luck with that, maybe you will make the next great test subject…

Galvin jumped up to his feet. No way in hell was he going to be anyone's test subject!

"Ah… M-madam Mewtwo where are you going…?"

"Is the meeting over?"

"No, I have some business to attend to." A clack of boots echoed behind Galvin as he ran the clacking of boots stopped but he refused to look behind himself. He was almost to the stairs, almost free and a smile crossed his fearful face when he found himself choking and lifted into the air. He was pulled backwards by an unseen force, moving at such speeds that everything was a blur until he came to an abrupt stop in someone's cold hands that proceeded to wrap around his neck. He could feel himself trembling as he tried in vain to pull the chilling hand away from his throat.

"Afraid little boy?"

"H-hardly!"

"Are you cold? Is that why you tremble? Or is it anticipation for an experiment and that I chose you personally?"

"As if I'll be some experiment for you!"

"You don't really have a choice." The woman smirked as Galvin was suddenly pelted with a borage of psychic waved, burning holes through the Rune uniform. She dropped the boy and flicked off his hat, grabbing Galvin by the chin she made him look up to her. Despite her shock she did not show it.

"An Oak huh? As a hostage you could bring in a huge sum of money from that grandfather of yours…"

"Don't drag my family into this you twisted freak!" Mewtwo chuckled, throwing Galvin into the wall with a swing of her arm.

"Am I really twisted for trying to return what humans once had? Maybe my reasons why are but it's all a part of what make us." She extended a hand to Galvin. "Even if we got the ransom I'm not letting you get away that easily, so, make a decision, would you like to be experimented on dead or alive?" Scyther had enough of this woman harassing his master and friends. This was the woman. The one from the boat, he knew this for sure! Scyther burst from his pokeball, ready to attack this woman again.

"You. So you are the trainer of this meddlesome bug from the S.S. Anne?"

"You've meet my Scyther before?"

"Stole my kill. Some stupid girl who decided to barge into the captain's room like an idiot hero."

"So you we're the one that attacked Steel!" the name Steel made the woman's eye's wide before quickly become stoic as usual.

"Steel you say…" she chuckled lightly, lifting Galvin and the Scyther up telepathically. "Tell her Hilda is waiting."

"W-what?!" before she was able to explain her words, not like she would of anyway, Galvin and his pokémon vanished and reappeared in the city's hospital. Galvin hit the floor rather hard, causing more irritation to his injuries and making him scream out in pain. Scyther fret over his trainer and a nurse rushed over to his side, she quickly loaded him on a stretcher and rolled him off for examination.

He could see it already…. Once Steel and Brass hear about this he was surely going to get chewed out over this for perusing a Rune in the name of justice.

Oh the irony.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

"What is wrong with you?!" Brass shrieked, waving his arms at Galvin, who stared back him with a rather bored expression. "You lectured me about this nearly a month ago! And yet, here you are doing the same exact thing, you can't play the hero either!"

"I realize this." Galvin dully noted. In retrospect sneaking into the base of a crime syndicate was a dumb idea, this could very well be his punishment for his stupidity. He let Brass continue his rant until the heart monitor screamed a flat line beat making Brass jump. Galvin rolled his eyes and pounded on his chest to get the machine to stop finding that didn't stop he called for a nurse.

The woman sighed, unhooking Galvin from the machine and roll it out. Brass watched the nurse wheel in a new detector, hook him up and leave the room.

"W…what just happened?" Galvin shrugged.

"They just have shoty hospital equipment for some rather rich city. That was the sixth monitor they gave me, they've all been acting up, kinda makes me worry about everyone whose native to the city."

"Y-yeah… I don't want to stay in a hospital with equipment that acts up…."

"Where's Steel? Hopefully not crying…"

"She doesn't know you're here."

"She doesn't?"

"Nope. She was out when Nurse Joy reported the call to me."

"Well, I'm not as banged up as you were so she probably wouldn't cry anyway, or that much." Brass responded with a slap to Galvin's chest, unfortunately this was an injured area, making him wince.

Steel let out a content sigh as she pulled the hot ceramic cup from her lips. The Eevee in her lap sighed contently with her and the rest of her Pokémon, even Seaa who was in a fish bowl on the table, who were lying around. The old woman across from her chuckled.

"It's so nice to have a guest and one that is so fond of my tea." Steel smiled. She couldn't help it, she really had no business being in the apartments but when she heard someone talk about how they had tea with an old lady she had to try it out.

"I love all kinds of tea," Steel admitted "you really know how to make a cup that can hit the spot!"

"Oh ho ho ho," the woman chuckled "you're just trying to sweet talk me to get yourself some more missy."

"Not really…." She stretched her cup across the table. "But I would like more please!"

"Of course dearie." Was the woman's reply as she poured more into Steel's cup. Steel finished it off in no time; she glanced to a clock on the wall and gasped. It was nearly two pm! Wow, time flew by so fast. Steel jumped to her feet, startling her Pokémon out of their calm vibe. "Something wrong dearie?"

"Aaaaah, I was out for so long my friends must be worried!" Suddenly the kettle began to wail. Steel faced it with absolute horror. "Oh no! Now all that perfectly good tea will go to waste! That's just terrible!"

"Why don't I pack it up in a thermos for you and you take it with you since you just love it so much." Steel cracked a smile.

"Really? That would be so nice of you!" The elderly woman shuffled to the kitchen, her aged Glaceon following behind her. Steel returned her pokemon to their pokeballs although as she did so she did it with a frown. Leaving now meant she probably wouldn't see that cute baby Eevee for a long time to come.

Man that thing was adorable.

Steel had to wince at the big adorable but heartbreaking eyes the fox was giving her. Sure it was cute and she did want to take the little critter with her but the problem that stood was that it just wasn't her Pokémon to take! It was the kind old lady's. She could steal it, which was wrong! Just as wrong as Team Rocket or Team Rune stealing it!

But oh Arceus, those eyes.

To save her from her evil thoughts the old woman waddled back into the room with a thermos. The design made Steel squeal, baby blue with a shell and bubble design. It was like the old lady knew she loved water Pokémon! Steel gladly accepted the metal cylinder just as the Eevee rubbed against her leg and all those evil thoughts returned in a heartbeat. Steel cursed at the Eevee.

"I can't take you, I'm not your trainer! It would be wrong to take you."

"Would you like little Star then?"

"What…?"

"Would you like to take him with you?" Steel blinked. Wait… what?! This old lady was willing to give up a rare Pokémon to her?! This must be some dream! "Star is so young, he only hatched a few months ago, and he must be so sad trapped in this apartment. There's so little he can do while here, why, he can't run or jump without knocking things over and I'm sure he wants to participate in battles but me and Glaceon are too old for that. I think he's better fit to go out with you, a nice young and energetic young lady, what hat do you say? Take Star with you?"

Steel looked to the Eevee and back to the old woman. She found herself smiling as she took him into her arms.

"Don't you worry! I'll take care of Star! I'll make him the best Eevee ever!"

"That's wonderful, now take care dearie." Steel waved a goodbye to the old lady and bolted down the halls with glee. She couldn't wait to show Star to Galvin and Brass!

"Why do you guys keep going to the hospital! Geez!"

It wasn't really the greatest way to greet her friends but it was something she wanted to know. Brass and Galvin returned her questioning look with ones of unamusement.

"You have no reason to ask that, Brass went twice and you yourself went once." Galvin sighed.

"Well, why are you here now?"

"I fell down some stairs while focusing on my book." Galvin lied. Brass looked at him like he was crazy. Steel simply sighed and shook her head.

"This is why I tell you not to read while walking! It's just not safe! You're very lucky you didn't break any bones or your neck!"

"Yes, yes, I know Steel."

"That's what you said last time and now look at you! You're in the hospital, oh Daisy won't like this at all!"

"Don't tell her." Was Galvin's deadpan response. "I don't need three, or even four, lectures in one day about reading and walking at the same time." Steel puffed up her cheeks but then smiled.

"What's with the smile…?"

"I got a brand new teammate! So quiver in his wake! The one and only Star!" Steel threw her Eevee's pokeball, the fox cried out in glee. He whipped his head around looking for his opponent, ready to battle to only find there wasn't any one to fight. Steel lifted him up and placed him on Galvin's bed. The two boys stared at it in wonder and with impeccable timing the heart detector did another flat line beep. Steel recoiled in horror.

"Oh no! Star was too much for Galvin, he's entered cardiac arrest!" Galvin shook his head.

"It's been like that all day." He grumbled calling for the nurse again for the seventh time in the last twenty-four hours. "But, an Eevee? Where did you get him from?"

"A nice old lady I was drinking tea with all day." Steel grinned

"I got Lanna from a little girl who was watching her grandpa's house." Brass decided to chime in, since he never did tell them where he got Lanna from anyway.

"How come you two are given rare Pokémon while I gotta be the one on my knees searching for them?" Galvin glared. They both shrugged. Brass turned to Steel and dragged her to the chair next to Glavin's bedside.

"I'm going to the gym, why don't you keep him some company now?"

"Okay." She smiled, taking a seat next to Galvin's bedside and Star decided to bat at Steel's hair.

"You know you have a pervert in front of you Gym right?" Brass asked pushing garlands of roses and other flowers out of his face. The woman sitting on her knees in the grass smiled. He blinked. She was dressed rather fancy compared to the other gym leaders he's seen so far. She looked as if she was in her early twenties, dressed in an elegant yellow-brown furisode with an orange-red maple leaf print lining the bottom half and accompanied with a red obi that was drawn tightly between her waist and bust.

"Yes, we have him under control so none of our visitors have anything to worry about." She carefully got to her feet, probably to make sure not to step onto the long swinging sleeves of her furisode. Her wooden sandals barely made sounds as she walked closer to Brass.

"You're here for a badge right?"

"Yeah…"

"Wonderful, now let us begin!" Erika quickly pulled out a pokeball from her sleeves and threw it down on the grass. "Come out Tangela!" from the light a mass of light blue vines curled into an untidy ball with what appeared to be red shoes attached to it took field. Brass grinned, this would be too easy.

Flamin' Billy took the his place on field and without waiting for instructions he ran up to the walking vine ball and spewed fire. Although hit the Tangela was not going down.

"Although you are using fire, rest assured we will not go down easily!" the Gym leader pointed to her target and commanded a sleeping powder. Tangela shook it's body around making a green dust fly towards Flamin' Billy, the salamander yawned with droopy eyes.

"H-hey! Don't fall asleep on me Billy!" regardless of its trainer's words the pokémon was out like a light, curled up on the grassy battle field. Erika smiled oh so kindly.

"Now, ancient power!" the Tangela's eyes suddenly glowed blue, hunks of compressed dirt and grass ripped from the ground and propelled itself to Flamin' Billy. Brass cringed at the impact, even more so as his pokemon wasn't waking up at all. Erika giggled lightly. Commanding the attack once more, after watching his pokemon get pelted again Brass pulled and awaking from his bag and threw it at Flamin' Billy's head, the spray bottle of blue liquid rolled to Erika's feet. She blinked.

Well, it wasn't the proper way to use the healing elixir, but it worked.

Flamin' Billy looked up and blinked. It took the pokemon a few seconds to realize it had fallen asleep mid-battle, embarrassed it hopped into a battle stance. Brass hasn't noticed that a crowd had gathered until one of the girls questioned the validity of his actions.

"Well, healing items are allowed, but the official rules never did specify how it may be used. So I suppose throwing an awaking counts if it awakens the Pokémon."

Flamin' Billy looked at Brass like he was an idiot. He seriously threw something at him when he was sleeping? How the hell did that even begin to look like a good idea? Brass laughed nervously and commanded an ember, Billy complied but not before shooting flames at Brass's feet. The salamander pounced it's pray and shot flames at point blank range. The Tangela toppled over, unconscious. Brass smiled proudly.

"Oh come now, the war isn't over." Erika smiled, returning her Pokémon. "Not until my sweet Vileplume brings the end of you!" Brass cringed at the over powering smell this Pokémon had. Oh sure it looked innocent, a small dark blue body with a flower attached to its head, but it gave of this over powering odor that smelled like rotting flesh.

Why would you want such an awful smelling Pokémon on your team?!

Oh man he would have to finish this battle before he barfed.

"Alright! Flamin' Billy, attack it with Ember!" The orange Pokemon ran forth, fire filling up its mouth. When it got close enough, it launched several small balls of fire at the dual type. The flower Pokemon jumped to the side, managing to dodge most. One fireball grazed its arm and caused it to squeak with pain.

"Vileplume, Stun Spore, let's go!" Vileplume's flower shook, and the middle contracted. A second later, yellow spores blasted out, showering the Charmeleon in the golden colored toxins. His movements slowed to a halt and its eyes widened in fear. "Alright. Mega Drain, Vileplume!" The middle of the flower contracted once more, and then shot out a seed. It slammed into the orange Pokemon's head, and opened up, releasing thick vines covered in thorns that spread out over Flamin' Billy's body. One vine still connected the seed to the Poison and Grass type, letting it slowly absorb energy from the salamander.

After a moment, the burn mark on Vileplume's arm disappeared, and it looked as good as new. Charmeleon stumbled back, the vines slowly dying and falling off. The Fire type breathed heavily. Brass fidgeted a bit, worried for his Pokemon. "Okay! Smokescreen!" Flamin' Billy's stomach tightened and his mouth suddenly started pouring out smoke. After letting it build up he pushed it out, filling the entire room with blackness. "Awesome! Now! Metal Claw!" The Charmeleon dashed forward, knowing exactly how to navigate to get to Vileplume, and slashed with its claws.

The Grass type squealed, and stumbled back as Charmeleon followed it and continued slashing with its claws. "Vileplume, Sweet Scent!" Before Flamin' Billy could land another hit, its movements slowed down as, instead of the horrid smell that had been assaulting his nose before, a sweeter smell came over him. "Now! Sleep Powder, once more!" The middle of the plant contracted, and shot out green spores, that attached themselves to the salamander. The Pokemon's eyes drooped, and it fell to the ground, snoring loudly.

"Use Acid!" The Vileplume spun on its feet, and a purple ooze gushed from the center of its plant, hitting Charmeleon on the stomach. On impact, a loud sizzling sound was heard and Charmeleon immediately leapt to its feet, growling in pain. Vileplume leapt forward, tackling into the orange Pokemon. More sizzling was heard as the poison remnants made contact with skin. Flamin' Billy yelped, and scrambled backwards.

"Flamin' Billy! Dragon Rage!" At that, a sparking was heard, and in the smoke a red light could be seen. Giving a roar, the salamander leapt at Erika's Pokemon and sank its teeth into the plant. Then, it started ripping at the Poison type with its claws, kicking with its feet at well. Vileplume screeched, swatting at Charmeleon to no avail. At one point, the red light dimmed, and then got brighter, sending out a shock wave. The blast knocked Vileplume down, and Charmeleon jumped off it.

"Finish it! Ember!" Brass called out. Flamin' Billy launched a volley of fireballs at the downed Pokemon. It gave a final squeak before falling silent. After a minute, Brass realized he had won and proceeded to flop over. Erika blinked.

"Oh dear, this will never do…"

While these events occurred, in a nearby region a young boy was about to receive a well awaited gift from his pen pal. Well, soon he would that is. In this small homely town a young bucktooth girl approached a house with a bag strapped to her back. She reached a two floor house and checked the number of the house with the number on a slip of paper in her hands. Finding that it was a match she smiled, hopping off the Miltank she was riding on, handed her bag to the pokemon and knocked on the door. She didn't even have to wait a minute before she was greeted by a pretty young woman.

"Yes'em and hello ma'am," the young blond greeted in a Sothern accent when the door opened up. The woman blinked, this little girl had to be no older than her sons and they were nine years old. "I'm a representative of Miller Ranch and I am here to deliver the goods yew ordered." The young girl glanced back to her Miltank,who offered her bag back to her. The girl quickly reached into it and pulled out a bag of fresh and ripe red and green apples. The woman smiled and accepted the fruits.

"Why thank you. You know, you're quite young how did you get a job as a representative?"

"By bein' a member of the family." The girl dug around some more in the bag strapped to the cow pokémon. Finding a pile of letters she handed those to the woman and smiled a bucktooth grin. "Goodbye ma'am, please enjoy yer apples and we hope that yew make further purchases with Miller Ranch." The cow pokémon got back on all fours, the little girl hopped on and the two departed for home.

The woman closed the door with a smile. She sifted through the letters when she came across a familiar handwriting. The writing of that one girl that wrote to her boy…

"Simon! There's a letter here for you!" seconds later she could hear the boy's footsteps as he sprinted from his room and down the stairs. He stumbled down the steps to excitedly grab the letter from his mother.

"Thanks mom!" he shouted as he sprinted back upstairs. The woman took a seat on the couch, taking a sip from her mug of hot coffee, and flipped through the mail once more looking for this month's bills. As for her sweet child he excitedly read his letter with the tail of his partner pokémon, a Sentret, wrapped around his neck. Once he finished it a frown he was about to place it back in the envelope when he found a boat ticket inside.

A grin crossed his face. With this he could visit Steel!

"Moooom!" he called, running down the stairs. The boy's mother looked to the stairs as her child bounded over to her with something in hand. She took the item from his hands that were in her face. "She sent me a ticket! She wants to meet me!" the woman glanced over the ticket, flipping it back and forth. It looked legit but she wasn't so sure about sending her son overseas to another region.

"Kanto is far away,"

Not really.

"I'll have to think about this dear." The boy pouted as she ruffled his black locks. Regardless of the distance she couldn't help but worry a little, her boy was nine years old and to go to Kanto at that age, alone none the less, didn't come off as an appealing idea but she could always look into this pen pal of his…

"I did it you guys…" Brass said shakily as he approached Galvin's bedside with Erika behind him with a thermos in her hands. Galvin raised a brow at his friend. He looked like he was about to puke and his knees were shaking. Steel blinked.

"Brass… what's wrong?"

"I got my badge…."

"That doesn't explain why you're gonna puke," Galvin grunted

"I'm not going to puke…"

"Your face says otherwise." A moment of silence passed. Erika smiled and handed over the thermos to Brass's friends along with his gym badge.

"Just give him some herb tea and he'll be fi-" Erika stopped mid-sentence, a hand on her cheek with a grim face as Brass suddenly vomited, lucky for everyone Steel grabbed a trash can when Galvin mentioned puke and held it close to her friend's face for him to throw up. "My… he's a sensitive one, I'm surprised he didn't faint until after the final blow in our battle."

"…Yeah… Thanks Erika…" she waved.

"Well, I best get going. Take care, especially you Brass." she turned to Brass and rubbed his backside for a minute of two before departing.

"Gee, what a nice lady." Steel smiled fondly as Brass puked once more. Galvin cringed at the sounds.


	15. Chapter Fourteen

Galvin glared at the security guard, daring him to say, "I'm so thirsty; I can't let you kids through."

"Ugh, geez, I'm so thirsty, but I can't let you kids through," something in Galvin snapped and he was about to jump the guard when Steel pulled him back, telling him over and over it wasn't worth it. True it wouldn't be, but by Arceus it would be satisfying to throttle one of these fucking security guards!

Steel dragged him to a seat by the entrance and opened her thermos, letting the minty aroma float in the air. She poured him a cup. Grumbling, he accepted it. The guard took in a waft the air and sighed contently.

"Hey, is that Mama Rosemary's Mint tea?" the man asked with excitement. Steel blinked.

"Uh, yeah, it is…"

"Can I have a cup of it? She makes the best tea!" Steel looked to the thermos with a pout. She loved this tea, but maybe it could be the only way into Saffron City, while the man was distracted. She took the half empty cup from Galvin and handed it to the man. The man happily slurped down the warm liquid.

"You kids can go ahead now…" he managed to get out between slurps. "Oh man this tea is good. Hey, little miss, can you leave the thermos? I'll make sure to share it with the others…" With a heavy sigh, Steel slammed the thermos on the counter and walked past the man.

"Why didn't we think of that before?" Steel shrugged as she snatched Brass's thermos of Erika's herbal tea for a drink. Brass didn't seem to care all that much. Tea wasn't his thing and he was better now anyway.

Saffron City was the biggest one in all of Kanto. It was home of the well known Karate Dojo, the headquarters of the Silph Company, and was the home of the Gym Leader Sabrina, not to mention it attracted many tourists with the Magnet Train connecting it to Johto. That left the question of why it was so empty. They didn't see a single person when they made their way to the Pokémon Center, and the center itself was empty. Not even Nurse Joy was there. Now things were getting creepy, an empty town and an empty Pokémon Center?

Something wasn't right.

It was at that second the doors swished open, and a dozen Rune grunts piled in, towing people and Nurse Joy with them. The leading grunt instructed his Arcanine to unleash Smokescreen. Steel managed to grab the Pokeball of her Butterfree, Kate, just before all vantage was lost by the thick black smoke.

"Kate! Clear the smoke!" the butterfly Pokémon flapped its wings and the heavy smoke was lifted to reveal the grunts had vanished, and left behind the nurse and trainers. The trio made faces of pure confusion. What was Rune up to? They were about to leave when they bumped right into Rune members that were guarding the building from the outside.

Steel clenched her fists.

"Enough is enough! I am tired of all these goddamn Runes making Rune look bad!" no one would really get that, knowing how small the original Rune was. Steel suddenly let out a loud battle cry and pushed over the Runes. Finding them on the ground, she proceeded to jump on them for some time until her friends pulled her off of the (poor) injured men. It was then the other trainers began to cheer for them.

"That was so cool!"

"Amazing!"

"She's so s-strong…"

"And a bit scary…"

"Where's damn Gym leader of this city?" Galvin demanded

"The Runes got her! They carried her off to the Silph company! I think they took her to some redhead woman!" one trainer yelled. Galvin cringed. Were they going to use her as one of their experiments because of her psychic skills?

"No, that lady left. She was like, flying and stuff!"

"Everyone can fly with a bird Pokémon, geez."

"No! She was flying by herself, no Pokémon or anything! It was crazy!"

"No way. That's not possible!"

Steel frowned. Mewtwo had been here.

"Let's go, Galvin."

"No." Steel nearly tripped at his startling response.

"Why not?" She frowned.

"Because, we have to heal our Pokémon first, that's the whole reason why we came here in the first place."

"Oh." It was hard to argue with logic like that. Nurse Joy going around and making sure all the captured trainers were now okay. After everyone gave a response in the positive, she set herself up behind the counter again. Everyone allowed Steel, Brass, and Galvin to get their Pokemon healed first, for stopping the Rune grunts. After the nurse returned their Pokemon to them, they left the center, talking about what to do next.

"I think what we need to do is take them head on," Galvin suggested. "Take them down at Silph. If we're smart and quick about it, we can do it somewhat easily." The general consensus on this was that it was a pretty good idea. Steel was especially adamant about doing it this way, if it meant dealing a big blow to Rune. They stopped outside the tall building, and Steel slowly looked up its length. They would most likely have to fight their way up through it, assuming Rune was smart about not letting elevators be unguarded.

"So," Brass blinked. "How're we doing this?"

"Like this." Steel ran up to the guards outside the building, and punched one straight in the jaw, sending him to the ground with a thud. Before the other one could react, her Wartortle tackled him in the stomach, causing him to crumple to the ground, groaning. Galvin and Brass ran up to her.

"Well, uh, okay," Brass looked at the downed guards. "That. That was a little more, uh, direct than I was expecting. But it worked."

"So, should we bust inside before anyone comes out?" Galvin asked, and Steel ran inside, her pokemon beside her. The boys were quick to follow, and once inside, there were plenty of guards to deal with. "Oh, this'll be bunches of fun." Galvin gripped a pokeball tight. Steel let out the rest of her Pokemon, as the Rune grunts started letting out their own.

Galvin unleashed his Scyther and Vulpex. Brass blinked at the fox pokemon.

"When did you get that?"

"Oh, a little while before I challenged Erika."

"It must be inconvenient to have a pokemon that could easily plow your gym close by."

"Yeah, probably is." Galvin mused redirecting the line of fire to the next target. Vulpix let loose a stream of fire at the surrounding grunts, who all jumped back. Most of their pokemon, however, were not to lucky as too avoid the attack, and a lot of them fell, causing their trainers to run away. Scyther leapt around from pokemon to pokemon, dealing quick but powerful hits. The Rune grunts were quickly whittled down to but a few. One of the stronger ones there let out a Graveler, which had picked Oddish as its target. Wartortle tackled it, sending it tumbling into a wall. Oddish scurried away, letting out a few pitiful sounds.

Graveler stomped its foot and rolled at Wartortle. The water-type pokemon shot a strong stream of water at it, and held it back. Scyther bolted up and crashed into it, sending the pokemon a good distance away. Wartortle tucked its head in and propelled itself into Graveler, knocking the rock-type out. The grunt ran away, leaving his Graveler behind. The other grunts followed suit, too scared to attack anymore. The trio stood for a moment, letting their pokemon get a rest.

"Well, that was easy!" Brass smiled. "If it's gonna be like this the entire time, this'll be a push over!"

The elevators dinged, as if to punctuate this statement, and Electrode rolled out in plentiful numbers. Galvin slapped Brass' arm.

"Look at what you did!" Brass frowned and gave a few strangled sounds of protest. Horsea and Wartortle spun in circles, and drenched the Electrode in water. Their consistent smiles turned to frowns, and they sparked, and rolled around in circles, seemingly knocked out. Steel crossed her arms and looked at her friends. Galvin looked to Brass. "Now why didn't you think of that?"

The three returned most of their pokemon and continued up the stairs, wary of anything that could pop out at them. At the top of the staircase, they saw three Rune grunts standing shoulder to shoulder, looking very much alike. "Hahaha! Stop there, intruders! This is where your assault stops!" one laughed loudly, and looked to the man in the middle, who started laughing.

"How do you expect to get past us?" he pointed towards them, and laughed again. Steel crossed her arms. "Have you heard of our god like strength? Our limitless potential?" He then looked towards the last brother who, again, laughed and spread his arms wide.

"We are the Rune Brothers, kids," he grabbed a pokeball from his belt at the same time as the others. "And we're gonna stop you with our fearsome strength." His voice was monochrome, but still somehow presented the tone of excitement. Scyther leapt forward and spread its arms, chittering. The brothers stopped and stared, frowning. They all looked at each other.

"Err! Uh! Excuse us, for a moment, kids!" the three brothers took a few steps back and got into a huddle. "What do we do about these kids! They've got a Scyther!"

"How can I think with something like that over there?" the middle brother hung his head.

"Anybody else have ideas?"

"Um. We could," the last brother shrugged. "Let 'em by." The others nodded, and walked back to their position at the top of the stairs.

"Alright! We will let you by!"

"But what will you say if someone asks how you got by?"

"That you three are super lucky you didn't run into the Rune Brothers." The last brother threw down a smoke bomb, and then the three brothers ran down the stairs past the trio, who stared in disbelief.

"What?" Brass watched after them. Steel shook her head, and tugged on his sleeve.

"Just," she sighed. "Just come on. We don't have time for this."

They continued to make their way through the floors. The grunts became weaker and sparser. Finally, they came to a locked door at the top. Scyther cut through it with ease. Steel kicked the door open with all her remaining pent up rage and strutted inside, and found an all too familiar face sitting at the desk. The woman in charge of the string of murders Pokémon center outside of Rock Tunnel sitting at a desk. Her ghost pokemon ceased their haunting giggles to look up at them.

"How'd you get up here?"

"The Rune Brothers let us pass," Galvin raised his hand. The woman at the desk shook her head in disgust at the name. She pushed her chair back and pulled herself up to her feet. The trio could feel malice oozing from this woman. It was understandable one would suppose, seeing as the trio previously ruined her operation not even a week ago.

The woman was about to send her Pokémon to attack when Steel immediately countered with a gust of sleep powder from Kate. Galvin and Brass performed a double team attack of flames to effectively knock out the sleeping Pokémon.

The woman at the desk narrowed her eyes. This was terrible. Honestly! Why was she assigned this job? Her training was for stealth and silence not leading full on assaults during the day for all to see. She did not flinch as the crazed girl slammed her hands down on the desk.

"First off where is Sabrina? Why did you take her?"

"Ugh, storage." The woman muttered glancing to the television screens installed into the table. It seems the other trainers of the city had contacted the police and the uniform men and women were bursting through the doors. "Mewtwo deemed her an ideal test subject due to the powerful connection with her Alakazam."

"Speaking of Mewtwo, where is she?"

"Gone. She left hours ago, more important things waited for her back at base." Steel glared harder.

"Where is this base?" the woman raised a brow curiously.

"You don't know? Curious…"

"How would I know?!" Steel demanded

"Mewtwo did leave your friend there" she motioned to Galvin, clearly bored. "An obvious clue to where she was or something like that." Steel's nostrils flared as she faced Galvin. In return he glanced away. How Hilda was a clue to anything was beyond him.

"Galvin! Why didn't you say anything?" She demanded

"It didn't seem important!"

"How could it not be?!"

"Uhh… guys…" Brass called to his friends, unfortunately almost immediately he was told to shut up by Steel, who was far too angry with Galvin to realize the higher up Rune was taking this chance to escape through a window. "Oh c'mon guys! Seriously! She's escaping!" Brass threw his arms in the direction of the window. Hearing this news Galvin tried to end this fight but head-headed Steel refused to give in and clam up.

Brass jumped for the woman but she was already gone with a Crobat carrying her off. Brass landed facedown and in pain as the authorities burst through the door with Growlithes ready to attack. Steel faced the door with a sharp finger pointed at Galvin's face it was then it hit her why they came to the building in the first place and how that very same mission was now a failure at most.


	16. Chapter Fifteen

Thankfully Sabrina was found, she was safe and alive, although, she had changed according to those who had last seen her. It seemed like she had grown ears but they were a matching shade of black that they would look like her hair was being unruly, which was recently cut short with the exception of some bangs that rested on her shoulder. As for clothes, she had quite the interesting get up, a pair of beige knee length boots with brown kneepads attached, a matching skirt and a brown cowl shirt and arm warmers.

The most interesting part the outfit was that she could not remove it and her prized Alakazm, the one she had since her childhood, was missing. Galvin was the first of the three heroes to come to the realization that Rune's attempt to create one being from man and pokemon was a success once more.

In the end Sabrina was thankful to our heroes and rewarded them with a lavish hotel room in one of the most expensive hotels in Saffron City. Steel was given her own room, which she was peeved about, while the boys were given their own. Almost immediately Steel marched across the hall to the room of her friends and knocked on the door, which looked and sounded more like punching.

On the other side the boys glanced at each other nervously. Steel was always as her scariest when she was mad and oh boy was she mad. After a match of rock-paper-scissors Galvin was forced to open the door.

"Hey Ste-"

"What did she tell you?" Steel cut him off

Right from the get go she wanted answers. Geez. With a heavy sigh he pulled her into the room and closed the door.

"Well?"

"She told me… when I mentioned your name,"

"Why were you mentioning my name to scum like that?"

"Ugh, you know when we went to Celadon City, and I was in the hospital?"

"…Yeah?" she huffed

"I lied, I didn't fall down some stairs. I went into the Rune base they hid under the casino." Steel gasped, appalled by her wiser friend's actions.

"You did what?! Oh my Arceus! Galvin!"

"Look, the psycho that tried to kill you on the S.S. Anne saw Scyther and your name slipped into the conversation and she said 'tell Steel, Hilda is waiting'. It seemed unimportant so I didn't see anything." A look of horror suddenly crossed Steel and color seemed to drain from her.

"…Steel?"

"H-hilda? Did you really just say Hilda?"

"Yeah…" the two boys glanced between each other and a sudden realization his Brass.

"No, Steel, you don't think…?"

"…I do…"

"What the hell are you two talking about?"

"Galvin, the right hand person to my parents was a woman named Hilda. When I would go to the Rune base I would see her often, she knew me, that's why… that's why she wanted you to tell me her name! A warning. I'm the heir to Rune too… what if she's out to get me…?"

"Calm down Steel!" Galvin placed his hands firmly on the shoulders of his female friend. "She isn't going to hurt you, not if we are around. Last time she took you by surprise, I'm sure of that you are quite formidable in not only pokemon battled but physical battles too; if you get a psychic or dark type you'll have even more ammo against her and your Eevee could fix that bill."

"Are you sure about that…?"

"Yes… I am." Despite this Steel could not help but worry, to fight a human Pokemon, one fused with the monster of Cerulean City, sounded incredibly dangerous…

Brass walked into the gym with a gulp. It was quickly concluded, thanks to the mob of screaming priests and chandlers outside, the gym was weird and the insides just made that even more so obvious. It was pitch black with an occasional eerie purple glow in the air and a pulsating blue and red square on the floor.

The boy poked at the ground with his foot before walking forward with a moments of hesitation. He approached the pulsating square and gave it a poke. Suddenly, Brass was screaming and thrown around as the dark world around him blurred. The spinning stopped and he was standing still before the Gym leader.

Sabrina was not amused with his screaming. She crinkled her nose and approached the boy.

"Oh, you. One of the boys from Silph Co."

"Uh, yes, hello Sabrina. I've come for a badge!"

"Of course you have," she grinned wryly. "this will be an interesting match…" a light suddenly shinned down on the two. Sabrina began to levitate above the ground and two spoons appeared at her side. Brass gulped and shuffled for the pokeball of his Lanna. The lonely pokemon took a defensive position almost immediately on sight of Sabrina, trying to understand what was going on with her.

"Your move."

"Okay, Lanna, use bone rush!" the young ground type nodded, heading her master's words she began running and jumped to smash the bone against the shoulder of the target. Sabrina simply blocked the attack with her spoons but this would not stop the young pokemon. She continued to swing, bashing against the knee and forearms of Sabrina. Once she tired down she returned to Brass's side.

"Lanna, Focus Energy!" the Cubone gripped the bone tight in front of its face, and squeezed its eyes shut in concentration. A faint glow surrounded it for a moment, then it swung its bone, eyes burning with determination. "Now Bone Rush, again!" Lanna nodded, and leapt forward again, raising her club high, and smashing it down hard. There was a dull smack, and Lanna stumbled backwards, a large chip in her club. She eyed it with disdain. Sabrina smirked, and twitched a hand. Lanna's arm shot straight up, gripping the bone club tight. Sabrina brought her own arm down, and Lanna's club smashed straight against her skull.

Lanna stumbled sideways, shaking her head a little. "This isn't working. Okay," he snapped his fingers. "Thrash!" Lanna leapt forward, swinging its club around with abandon. Each swipe was dodged by Sabrina with ease, and as the Cubone stumbled out of its daze, a spoon shot straight into the back of its skull helmet, and Lanna fell to the ground, a small crack on the backside. Brass sighed and called the baby pokemon back.

"That was worth a shot," he gripped another pokeball and tossed it out. "Flamin' Billy! Let's go!" Charmeleon roared and got into a battle stance, the flame on its tail flaring out. Before Sabrina could do anything, Charmeleon released a Smokescreen and an Ember in quick succession. Sabrina managed to stop the fire attack before it could hurt her. Charmeleon leapt at her back and delivered a Slash attack. Sabrina spun away from it, balancing herself in mid-air.

"Your Charmeleon's good. I'm surprised how well he adjusted to… me, I suppose, but," she squeezed her eyes tight, and Charmeleon's claws raked against its chest. She twitched a finger, and Charmeleon gave its self another scratch from its belly to the base of its neck. It gave a grunt of pain. "Is he good enough to deal with this kind of fighting?" Charmeleon growled, and leapt at Sabrina, claws glowing a faint gray. A spoon shot out and pushed Charmeleon backwards.

"Charmeleon, Flame Burst!" Brass called, and Charmeleon nodded, shooting a thick blast of fire. Sabrina blocked the attack, but two small embers split off and hit the spoons next to her, dropping them both to the floor. Charmeleon dashed forward and tackled straight into Sabrina, sending them tumbling to the ground. Sabrina pushed Charmeleon off with her powers, and lunged for her spoons, sending one crashing into Charmeleon's stomach, making it lose its wind. Sabrina threw her other one, and it smashed straight into his forehead, sending it to the floor.

Sabrina lifted and arm, and Charmeleon flew up and crashed into a wall. It fell to the ground, giving a defeated groan. Brass sagged, head drooping. "Billy, return. Clefastar, go!" Brass' next pokeball revealed Clefairy, dancing around on its feet. It waggled a finger at Sabrina. "Metronome!" The finger took on a bright white glow, and then stopped. Clefairy giggled, and then bounced towards Sabrina. It leapt and Sabrina swung at it with a spoon. It made contact, and Clefairy disappeared, and then reappeared behind Sabrina, delivering a punch to the back of her head.

Clefairy bounced up to her again, and used Doubleslap, planting two strong smacks to each cheek. Then, it slapped Sabrina once again, this time under the chin, and almost making like a punch. Then, Clefairy's finger glowed, and it jumped into the air, giving Sabrina a good kick to the stomach. Brass watched in surprise. Sabrina collapsed to the ground, tired and defeated. "I think that means I won." Brass scratched his cheek.

"Uh, Brass of Pallet Town is he winner…?" The referee was completely stupefied. He wasn't expecting that. Sabrina was like a pokemon now. She was massively powerful but she got slapped into submission? Sabrina motioned the referee to come over.

"Present the boy with his badge." The man nodded and set off for the back room. Sabrina turned back to Brass with a hand extended. "Let me see your Cubone, Lanna was it?" Brasss looked unsure for a moment as he handed over the pokeball. Sabrina let out the lonely pokemon and scooped it into her arms as she squirmed and flailed.

"Calm down little one," the woman placed an index and middle finger against the forehead of the baby pokemon. In a matter of seconds Sabrina saw all of what she needed to see and placed the pokemon back down on her stubby feet. "I see, just as I though…"

"Uh…" the boy curiously glanced between pokemon and gym leader "What do you mean?"

"On the day Rune took me hostage I was called to look into the ghost situation in Lavender Town, I suspected for some time the raging ghost I heard about in gossip and rumors was the mother Marowak that was murdered. The Cubone in your possessions is the child, the only one alive that is." Sabrina then sighed and tapped her chin, spinning away from Brass. "You will need to calm the ghost in my place."

"W-what?! Why me?"

"Your love for Lanna, I believe, would be able to calm the ghost, for it would show that not all humans are terrible and the child is in good care. And I don't want to leave my gym like this anyway." Well. That did make sense… seeing its child would probably calm the ghost down and Brass did love Lanna along with all his other pokemon and Sabrina walking in the public the way she was now could cause an uproar…

Brass sighed. Galvin and Steel were not going to like this news…

As Brass expected his two friends were unhappy with the news that they had to return to Lavender Town. The last encounter with it did not end so well, as it tried to kill them both but they were both curious to Brass's plan to calm the spirit and put it to rest.

The town was just as cold and lifeless as it was before, thankfully due to the late hours no one was glaring at them this time around. The group quietly entered the tower, which turned out to be open at all hours to pay respects, and rushed up the stairway outlined in flickering candle light. Despite the towers being open all day there were little to no priests or chandlers around at this hour, so other than the wild pokemon, the group had no problem reaching the sixth floor.

Go back…

Brass let Lanna out of his pokeball and lifted her into his arm. This course of action made his friends blink.

"Why did you let Lanna out?"

"You'll see," Brass yawned, waddling around the floor. "Now you said you saw it by the stairs, right?"

Get out…

"Uh, yeah…"

"Okay." Brass took in a gulp of air and approached the stairs. "Spirit! I have a visitor for you." He placed Lanna on the ground, the little pokemon scampered behind Brass's leg for protection. He smiled, squatting down to pet her on her skull. "There, there, I'll be right here. Now, go talk to the spirit…" with a moment's hesitation the pokemon stepped forward before it a figure began to shape, a black shadowy mass with glaring white eyes and then into a Marowak.

The two monsters stared at each other as they conversed in the tongue of their species. Lanna would point to Brass every once in a while and the mother would snarl and grunt at the child. The conversation of sounds went on for some time to the point where Brass had to take a seat on the ground bur Lanna took him by surprise when she jumped onto his stomach and curled up on it.

Brass looked up to the mother pokemon cautiously. She was staring back. No grunts were exchanged between them, even after Clefa Star and Flaimin' Billy burst from their pokeballs to curl around their master and friend to defend him if it came to that.

But it did not.

The ghost simply dissipated till nothing more and whispered a thank you. The air of the building suddenly seemed to be lighter and the fog lifted a bit. No sounds or howling was heard. The spirit of the murdered Marowak was finally put to rest.


	17. Chapter Sixteen

Simon was jumping around in his seat. He needed an answer soon or he would explode! Him mom had to let him see Steel!

" I suppose so," the woman finally answered. "I asked Elm when he had a visitor over, a professor Oak I think, and he said he knew Steel. He said she was a sweet girl and she's traveling with friends so I wouldn't have to worry about both of your safety with all that Rune bui-" the mother was suddenly cut short as her son propelled himself into her stomach and hugged her tightly.

"Thank you mommy! Thank you!"

"Aw, how come Simon gets to go to Kanto Mrs. Locke?" the child sitting on the leather couch questioned. The woman smiled, approaching him and kissed the boy on his head.

"Simon is going to meet an old friend Nicky."

"What friend?" the boy huffed "Simon doesn't have any other than me and Kairi!"

"Well, I guess we were wrong!" the woman giggled.

"But I don't want him to go!"

"He won't be gone for long and he will come back." the little boy continued to huff and gazed angrily as young and excited Simon danced around with his Sentret. Nick slowly sat back down on the couch and pet his prized Pikachu with a forlorn look on his face.

Soon a rapping on the door came and the mother answered it. She smiled as she greeted the young freckled farm girl with a steaming fresh apple pie with her Miltank at her side.

"'After noon ma'am. Can the boys play today?"

"They can but it won't be a long time today." the woman smiled accepting the gift.

"Why is that ma'am?"

"Simon is going to see a friend in Kanto, and his ship is leaving today."

"Golly! That means you'll be going to Olivine City! I've always wanted to go  
there!"

"Maybe you could ask your mom, it would only be for a few hours."

"Maybe I could! Could I borrow your phone ma'am?"

"Of course Kairi," the mother smiled warmly. "you're always welcomed in my house." the young girl skipped to the stool situated by the phone hanging on the kitchen wall. After a few minutes of conversation the blond cheered. Her mother said yes!

"That's wonderful!" in the background Nick huffed. The woman approached Nick, draping a heavy yellow winter jacket over his shoulders. "Now, as soon as Simon packs up we'll go to the city together! We can go site seeing and eat together at a fancy restaurant!"

"That sounds like a swell time!" Kairi grinned. The blond girl hopped onto the couch and the Miltank curled up by her feet. The two friends remained on the couch, Nick completely unhappy and Kairi jittery as she could be.

Steel slowly shifted her body upwards, hair flowed over her shoulder and her dulled brown eyes stared at the door. Did someone mention her name? She sneezed and threw herself back down on the bed. She shuddered, pulling her feet under the bed sheets and wrapped her body in the sheets for warmth.

Of course. December was coming and it was only getting colder… maybe the first snow would come soon… she sighed and nuzzled her pillow. Steel curled under her sheets and returned to sleep.

…

Winds howled loudly, snow and hail fell from the sky and yet, Steel did not seem to notice or even care. Even if she was dressed in a simply white dress. Her hands were cupped; catching the falling snow and throwing it back into the sky with a giggle.

Suddenly something small and blue fell from the sky. Steel reached out and caught it. She quickly cupped her hand so it would not escape, whatever it was. She curiously opened her hands slowly to see a tiny blue bird looking at her.

Tiny blue bird pokemon were not common in Kanto, in fact it was impossible. The only region with wild blue birds Unova and by a thin branch, Hoenn.

"What do you value?" the bird tweeted. She blinked. What the hell?

"What…?"

"What's your favorite thing?" thing? Well, the ring that once belonged to her mother. Mrs. Selma was a nice woman and all but she wasn't her mother. Any piece of her parents was valuable to her. The house in Viridian was in ruins and most likely never to be purchased and never repaired. Rune, which was to be her's one day, was under Hilda's iron rule and twisted. Anything of her parents was precious to her…

"My mother's ring…" she spoke softly. The bird suddenly pressed and squished itself into a small glowing orb and flew into Steel's gaping mouth. She was completely off guard and tried to cough up the bird but no anvil. The light of the bird traveled down her throat to shoulder span and down the arm with the prized ring. The light seemingly entered the ring and blasted a powerful blinding light

Steel flung herself upright, heaving. She hacked and coughed, no feathers came out. A dream? Well, that was probally okay. But at the same time no it wasn't. Steel grimaced at the memory of her dream. She ate a bird. How weird could she  
get?

Sitting up the sheets pooled around her waist letting in another chill of cold air. She shuttered and huffed, crawling to the window and opened the blinds to be greeted to the sight of Kanto's first snow.

Well. That explained the cold. No matter! This was a perfect opportunity to try on her new winter clothes she purchased in Celadon City. Giddy already, Steel grabbed her bag and rushed for the bathroom with such speed the door loudly slammed shut, startiling the young pokemon.

"For the love of Arceus!" David scowled, he pointed at Brass and Galvin "Control that psycho! She can't go around scaring the injured pokemon."

"Now, now" came the voice of an elderly man. The gaggle of boys turned to the man. "I'm sure the girl meant no harm to the pokemon. She seemed excited to say the least. What a thrill it must be to be young."

This old man was Mr. Fuji, the grandfather to David and his sister, and master caretaker of sick, weak and injured pokemon, and even people. After helping put the restless spirit to rest the old man graciously opened his home to our heroes.

Galvin sighed. "Brass, you do have winter clothes, right?"

"No, why would I anyway? It's not even cold." Galvin gave his friend a questioning look.

"Brass, it's the f-"

"The first snow of the season you nitwit!" David snapped

"Pffst, it's not even cold." Brass scoffed. Galvin continued to give his friend a look. There had to be a door of snow outside and the temperature was low. The could be no was he was not cold, even slightly.

"Good morning guys!" Steel greeted as she skipped down the halls with a heavy black winter jacket with white fur trimming on the shoulder and around the hood. "Morning. That's a nice coat by the way."

"I know!" she smiled and pointed to the pair of heavy brown pants he was wearing. "It's for you! I knew it would match your pants!" unsure how to respond to that he just slipped the jacket on. A perfect fit. He quickly checked Steel's attire as she approached Brass, offering him a coat and scarf (both that he rejected.). Steel had purchased herself a pair of white fur boots with a bubble design, black leggings, a heavy gray coat, black scarf and the white Trainer hat from the fashion line.

"What do you mean you're not cold?" Steel huffed "It's cold as tits!"

That was probably an extreme.

"Look Steel go eat, if he gets cold later he can get the jacket then."

"Fine." with a huff she stalked off. Galvin sighed. Why couldn't his mornings be normal?

After eating up the trio took their leave, bidding the Fuji family farewell. As they exited down they found more people were roaming around. Was it possible that the channlers informed the people? Well, maybe when some new trainers come to town they wont face any hostilities.

Lucky them…

Mrs. Locke lead the children out of her humble home and to the from yard. She pulled a pokeball from her pocket and tossed it into the air. From the white light an Altaria appeared. With a smile she loaded the children onto the giant bird and took a seat in the crook of the bird's neck. With a smile she ordered the bird to fly in the direction of Olivine City.

The Altaria cooed, spreading its cloud like wings. It took off into the air and among the clouds. An hour of flying vanished in what seemed like minutes as the group landed before the city's Pokemon Center. First the mother came off, then she assisted Simon and his bag down, following Nick and finally Kairi. The woman returned her pokemon to its pokeball after thanking it.

"Look Mittens!" Kairi cheered letting her Miltank from its pokeball. "It's so beautiful! Way better than I imagined!"

Yes, the twilight lit city was quite a sight to behold. Lamps glowing, port streamers and flags flapping in the salty wind and the ocean was clear and shimmering. It was something compared to New Bark Town and Fields.

Kairi watch a girl and her Ampradose walk by. The child gasped. Could this be the super cool lighthouse pokemon she heard of? The temptation to approach the pokemon was high, but was killed when the owner noticed her. The elder girl smiled shyly and wave at her. Kairi slowly waved back.

"Kairi dear!" Mrs. Locke called "don't fall behind! You'll get lost!"

Oh right. She was here to send Simon and Scarfy off.

"Right, com' in' ma'am" Kairi hastily called back. Grabbing Mitten by a hoof she rushed to her friends and squeezed between the boys with a cheeky grin on her freckled face.

The young woman with brown hair and an Amphradose smiled fondly.

"Kairi… What a pretty name." she smiled to her pokemon, grasping it by a stubby hand they continued their walk to Glitter Lighthouse. "Come along Ampy. It's time for another day of hard work."

"Amp."

Steel hummed with a thoughtful face. Slowly she reached to prod the sleeping mound of flesh and fur to confirm her suspicions. As she thought, it was not sleeping but instead hibernating!

"Oh my Arceus!" Galvin grunted "Steel, stop poking it. It's obviously hibernating. It's the start of winter." she was about to snap back when the tweeting of a flute entered the air. The pokemon twitched slightly. The two trainers turned to Brass to find that he was the one playing the flute, terribly no less. "What are you doing?!"

"Waking it up. Mr. Fuji said this flute can awaken a sleeping pokemon." He put the instrument back into his mouth and made some more random notes. The face of the pokemon twisted and consorted. With a surprisingly tiny yawn the Snorlax stirred, heaving the body upright. With excitement Brass threw aside the flute and let Lanna out.

"This will be easy! Lanna! Use False Swipes!" the young pokemon nodded, she jumped forward and slammed the blunt end of her femur bone right against the head of the Snorlax. With a yelp the pokemon tumbled over. Brass licked his lips, pulling an Ultra Ball from his pocket. With a click of a button the yellow-black striped ball enlarged and Brass threw it like a baseball, smacking the pokemon on the head.

The Snorlax was engulfed in a red light as it was sucked into the colorful sphere. The Ultra Ball fell to the ground, wobbling back and forth. With a click and a ding, Brass knew he successfully captured the pokemon.

"Sweet! I'll call her," Brass picked up the pokeball with a grin. "Jojo!"

"Are you sure it's a girl?" Steel questioned

"It let out a girly yawn so I think it is…" the two shrugged, content with that answer, even if it was a boy Jojo would still fit.

"So, you taught Lanna False Swipe?" Galvin glanced to said pokemon, which was hugging Brass's leg, looking for some recognition. Brass nodded as he leaned down to pat the pokemon on the back.

"What is False Swipes anyway?" Steel questioned with hands on her hips and huffing as the trio ventured forward and into building that represented the entrance to cycle road. "It totally smacked the crap out of Jojo."

"False Swipe is a move that can knock a foe down to near fainting," Galvin explained. "It works best on wild pokemon for some reason…" Steel's mouth curved into an 'o'. Together the trio began to assemble their foldable bikes when a guard asked them to pull out their vehicles. The gang bike through the automatic doors and into the chilly air once more, almost missing the warning about the road being a tad slick.

No matter they biked forward. Steel huffed at the lack of conversation. Brass was biking along casually, as if he was not cold in the slightest; Galvin maintained a cautious speed and being mindful of his two friends. Maybe she could spark something!

"So last night I had a dream, it was snowing and I ate a blue bird." This took them by surprise, to be expected. With gawking expressions the boys two bikes collided, and they fell. Steel yelped and skid to a stop. She rushed to her friends side, worried that they were hurt.

"I'm sorry!" she fretted "I didn't mean to make you-"

"You had a dream like that too?" Galvin questioned. She blinked.

"Too? You mean you had a dream like that Galvin?"

"So did I, but my bird was red" Brass added "and there was fire, or an eruption or something going on in the background."

"An electric storm and a yellow bird." Galvin sighed.

"That's weird. Why would we all dream something so similar, on the same night?" Brass pondered. Galvin shook his head. He dusted spots of snow from his jacket and pants before setting his bike upright.

"We can talk about this in privacy; it would be weird for someone to overhear us on the road." Brass and Steel agreed upon this and hopped back onto their bikes. They continued the ride in silence. This whole adventure was so abnormal! What happened to just collecting badges and making friends! Kids her age weren't supposed to have trippy bird eating dreams or have to worry about crime syndicates trying to kill them. Steel let out a soft sigh.

'I sure wonder what Simon is doing now… I hope he's having a good time with his family…'

The small group exited the dinner, a bag of left over in the hands of the females. Simon smiled brightly. Soon his ship would be leaving soon and he would be going to see Steel! He was getting giddy already. The mother reached into her wallet and pulled her son's sea faring ticket out. His ship was to sail within the hour…

"Simon," the young child ceased dancing. His mother handed over the ticket with a smile and pat him on the head. "You're ship is leaving soon, so why don't you board on now?"

"Okay mom," Simon suddenly dropped his bag onto the concrete, he quickly zips it opens and shuffled around for something. From the bag he pulls out a small black box. The boy grinned as he handed it over to Kairi.

"Happy birthday Kairi!"

"Golly," Kairi awkwardly took the gift from her friend. She looked to him and the box. "Simon, it's not even my birthday yet! It's not well into the month yet."

"I know, I don't know if I'll be back in time so I wanted to give it to you early instead of missing your birthday."

"That's mighty kind of you partner…"

"Open it up Kairi!"

"Okay, okay, hold your Ponytas…" with a smile Kairi opened up the box and gasped. Inside was a golden chain bracelet with a single sapphire heart shaped gem hanging from it. "S-simon..! This is…" she shook her head "I don't think I can take this…"

"You don't like it?" The boy asked dejectedly.

"No, I really like it. But there's no way I could ever get you something as great as this Simon…"

"Don't worry!" he smiled. "Having you as my friend for a whole another year is a greatest gift ever!"

"You sure partner…?"

"Yep!" Kairi smiled, her young fingers pulled the box to her chest. Simon stepped forward and hugged her. "I'll see you soon! So don't worry." Simon turned to his brother with a cheeky smile, dragging him into the hug. "I'll miss you too Nick!" the brunette boy huffed.

"Yeah, I'll miss you Simon…" Simon pulled away from his friends and threw his arms around his mother, burring his face into her stomach.

"I'll miss you mommy! But don't worry, I'll be a big boy. I'll be responsible and I won't get in Steel's way!"

"I know you will dear," Mrs. Locke kneeled down and pecked her boy on his forehead. With a hug she sent him off. Wondering if it would be this hard when her little boy left for his league adventure in a few years

Getting on the boat was a relatively quick process. He was given his room key and map of the ship. Finding his room was a bit confusing; thankfully a few adults were helpful enough to help him out. He found himself confused yet again although. The room Steel paid for was huge! A concierge suite with a balcony view to be exact. It had everything, living room and dining room, bedroom, a ginormous walk in bathroom, closet and so much extra space. Floor covered in white carpeting, tables and counters with marble finishes, walls and cabinets with wooden finishes, green curtains to cover the gaping windows and balcony door. How did she pay for all of this?

The boy threw himself down on the couch. His loyal pokemon partner joined him, curled up on his chest, contently purring. The boy stared up at the ceiling with excitement when there was suddenly a loud crash and bang from the halls. Curiously, he climbed up from the couch and exited into the halls to find a young woman with long black hair on the floor in a heap. Gee! What was she doing on the floor?

He noticed a white stick on the floor and picked it up to poke at the girl.

"Hey… miss, what are you doing on the floor? You don't sleep on that…" the girl twitched and pulled herself upright. She was frowning and in tears.

"Did you hurt yourself?"

"No… I just locked myself out of my room and I don't know where my roommate is… oh what can I do?"

"Uhm, you could stay with me for a little while," he pointed to the door behind her. "this your room right?"

"I don't know… I think it is."

"You don't know?" Simon parroted with curiosity in his young voice. "Why not?"

"I cant see, I'm blind. I'm going to Kanto to get help… none of the doctors back home in Sinno could help me…"

"Oh…" Simon touched the girl's hands. She pulled herself up to her feet with a sniffle and lead her back into his room across the hall. "I'm Simon by the way…"

"Linda, Linda Banks."


	18. Chapter Seventeen

"Steel, what the hell is that?" Galvin questioned, pointing to the object in his friend's hand.

"…Someone's dentures…."

"That's nasty." Brass quipped as he walked through the tall grass.

"Well, yeah, but someone is missing them. Maybe I can give them to the officer and they can find the owner."

"I guess, but that's kinda gross still." Steel shrugged and took a seat next to Galvin. She had her fill of pokemon hunting but now she had to wait on her friends. How boring. She huffed and pulled her bag into her lap.

And so, they sat on was water's edge for quite some time. Steed was staring to get bored rather quickly and began to draw pictures in the dirt. Suddenly Galvin's fishing rod tugged downwards as he yawned.

He grits his teeth with a smug grin and tugged. The pokemon broke the surface but it was still resistant. Galvin tugged harder on the rod and jerked it in the direction of the sky. The slim serpent creature went up in the air and crashed down at the foot of the trainer, effectively beaching it.

With a grin Galvin threw a safari ball, hitting the pokemon on its head. Galvin grinned as the camouflage covered device ceased its wobbles. He proudly collected the device and left the Safari with Steel, leaving Brass to continue his adventures in the tall grass.

"Hello and welcome to the pokemon center," the nurse greeted. "How may I help you?" Steel slowly raised the hand holding the dentures. The Nurse's face fell. She wasn't expecting a trainer to present this to her…

"Someone lost these in the Safari Zone miss."

"Oh, those probably belong to the Warden, he's missing his and no one can understand a single thing he's saying!" Steel thanked the woman and ran off. Nurse Joy turned back to Galvin and smiled, accepting his pokemon.

Steel burst through the door in her usual crazed manor, flailing arms and screaming. She received no response to her actions. The lone old man was sitting at his table to the corner of the room with a frown on his face.

"Hellllllo! I'm here to return some lost dentures!" The old man's gaze suddenly shot upward and he looked just like a Growlith chasing after its favorite tennis ball as he ran over. The old man snatched his teeth and put them into place.

"Thanks lil missy, I lost my teeth some time ago! Not a single person could understand what I was saying!"

"I bet it's hard to talk without teeth sir…"

"Darn touting it is!" The old man waddled off to the desk in the small home. He began to pull and throw things from the desk drawer. Light weight and heavy object flew haphazardly leading Steel to hide under a table. The meteor shower came to a halt as the elderly man pulled out a aged silver disk. He inspected it for a moment and handed it over to Steel.

"Here you go Missy, a HM 04, strength!"

"Oh… Thank you sir."

"Who are you again?" the old man suddenly asked. Steel awkwardly took a step back.

Hands on the invisible walls was the only way to get around the Fuchsia City Gym. It was either that or she was going to crash into walls over and over and get another nose bleed. Galvin wasn't fond on the idea of nosebleeds. With a sigh he lectured himself. What a fool he was to think getting to the gym leader was so straight forward!

Still, at least he god the job done. He glanced at his new heart shaped badge and placed it in his silver badge case as he exited the gym. He made his way back to the pokemon center as Steel came back from the shores with Bubbles… who was no longer a Wartortle. Steel smiled and waved.

"Hey Galvin!"

"Hey, Bubbles… evolved… he looks quite impressive."

"Yep! I made sure to train him up to evolving. There's not a ship left in the city, and by the time Brass beats the gym leader tomorrow they still wont be back so Bubbles will take us to the next gym!"

"Really, no ships?"

"Sadly." Steel sighed, reaching into her coat pocket. She pulled out a white handkerchief and used it to clean the drying blood from Galvin's face. He went red sightly. Steel tucked the dirty cloth away when she found him clean. "C'mon, let's go back to the poke center. You and your pokemon should be tired after that battle." Glavin nodded and followed his friend back to the center.

After a nice hot meal served by the nurse each of the pre-teens called to check up on their home and family. Everything seemed to be in order and nothing unusual happened, but each lied about recent run ins with Rune and night stayed at hospitals. Galvin gazed out the windows once more in that direction to the northeast, the power plant. He wasn't even sure why he would stare off at it, he just had… a connection, which made no sense.

He let out a small sigh, resting his head on his knuckle and adjusting his seat on the windowsill. Steel approached but he didn't even notice her until she hugged his arm. He blinked in surprise and lifted his head to face her. He shifted his body onto the center of couch under the windowsill. Steel hugged his arm tighter, he managed to pull it from her arms and wrapped it around her shoulder.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asked casually. She nodded into his chest. "Wanna talk about it Steel?" she was silent for the following moments before she nodded again.

"I'm just scared… Hilda is going to come and get me you know… and, she's really powerful… I don't… I don't think I can stop her." Her fists clenched around the material of his night shirt. Her voice was small, hesitant and quivering, so different from what he usually heard come from her. "None of us can…I cant bare the thought of her hurting you or Brass either! I'm scared to be alone, I don't know any more if I'm ever alone… what if I'm being watched by Rune? Even right now?" Galvin stroked her hair as she began to weep and he pressed his forehead to her's.

He sighed softly, trying to find words. This was a delicate subject, it was his own mistake that saved his life but installed fear into his dear friend.

"They wont hurt you," Galvin final spoke. "And you'll never be alone. Just… whistle or something… yeah," he smiled softly. "whistle, and I'll come running. I'll become the strongest trainer in all of the regions. I'll protect you from Rune. I'll… I'll do everything I can…"

"Galvin… but… what if…?"

"I'll get hurt without a doubt, but they wont kill me. You're my friend, and I'll do anything for you."

"You're brave…" Steel muttered, glancing aside.

"I guess," No. He was pretty scared himself but he had to protect her and be there when she was emotionally vulnerable. He knew it was the right thing to do. He glance down to her. She had fallen asleep. He could not blame her, it was late after all. Effortlessly Galvin lifted Steel up and made his way to the room. She was placed in the second bed from the window, Galvin carefully pulled the sheets over her body before jumping in the empty bed.

As anticipated there was not a single ship in the docks. Steel let out her starter water pokemon in the cold ocean waters and the trio climbed on. When Steel gave Bubbles the okay pokemon set sail southwestern. As the group came closer and closer to the Seafoam island, the only roadblock to Cinnibar island, the temperature dropped drastically and chunks of ice were found floating in the water. Bubbles masterfully maneuvered around the ice and he made it to the sands of Seafoam islands. Amazingly, and horrifyingly, a blizzard howled from the depths of the cavern.

"Stay close when were on land. The last thing we need is to get separated." Galvin explained leading the group, he located a ladder going down. This lead to a waterway so Steel let out her starter once more. Bubbles jumped into the water and the trio climbed aboard. The group aimlessly floated down the chilly waterways and soon the blizzard became worst.

"Ugh, we must be getting close to the source…" Galvin muttered. He shivered and rubbed his hands together, trying to warm up. Steel shifted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. Brass squinted his eyes at the sight.

"Make ooooout." he bellowed. The two went red and glanced away from each other. Brass chuckled just as the weather got worst. The blizzard hit harder and soon it was almost impossible to see. Bubbles let out a groan as it's head made a dull thud with contact with land. The trainers climbed off and Steel returned her pokemon to its pokeball. Galvin took Steel's hand into his and she took Brass's. The trio trekked across the icy terrine and for a moment, Steel was sure she heard a voice.

A voice calling her name. It wasnt a voice she heard before but it was so familiar. All common sense was lost as she pulled her hands from friends and ran into the frozen environment. She could hardly hear her friends over the howling winds.


	19. Chapter Eighteen

She was in a room when she came to. A strange room to say the least. The frame of the canopy bed seemed to be composed of ice while the curtain was a dense mist. She curiously pushed back the sheets and the comforter that was keeping her body warm, made from actual bedding, and pulled back the curtain. She was greeted by the cold air as soon as she was exposed. Steel quickly looked around for her clothes, when she noticed she was wearing just a white dress.

A dress that she had no idea where it originated from. Noticing a white wooly robe and a pair of slippers resting on the table top next to the bed, she pulled them onto her body and left the room. The various rooms and halls, even decorations, seemed to be carved from ice.

Where was she? She was in the Seafoam islands, last she could recall... how did she end up in a place like this?

How strange...

\---

"So," Simon looked at his Sentret, who was conversing jovially with Linda's Buneary. "Uh, if you don't mind me askin', what is being blind like? I mean, I know it's just dark all the time, but I don't know anyone who's blind and. Yeah." Linda smiled and angled her head towards her lap, thinking it over.

"Well, that's a little broad of a question, but," she paused again. She could hear Buneary squeaking with Sentret. "I was born blind. So, I don't know what colors look like. When you say 'red' I see black. I haven't seen numbers or faces or anything. I can only imagine what Buneary looks like. My dreams are all black too. But, like, I can hear better than most people, y'know? It's like... my body adapted to not having sight. So, that's that, I guess. Buneary helps me around, and that's why I have my cane."

"Oh," Simon blinked, taking it in. "Well, um, what's your home like? You said you came from Sinnoh, right? I come from Johto, it's pretty swell!"

"Well, Hearthome's really nice. I've heard the buildings are all really old, so they're different from the other buildings in Sinnoh. The people are really nice too. I'm sure you'd enjoy it if you visited."

"Yeah," Simon said, smiling. "That sounds like it'd be nice, but..."

"But?"

"Hearthome is a big city, isn't it?"

"From what I've been told. Let me guess, you don't like big places?"

"No, I don't mind big spaces, I just don't like being around many people."

"There's nothing to be afraid of, while some people can be mean... not everyone is." She suddenly felt something against her side. If she didn't know any better it was probably Simon. She reached out and touched his head, ruffling his hair. "And I'd be glad to show you around."

\---

Shortly after she left the room Steel was located by... the maid of the castle? Well, the Jynx was cleaning when she came by... but why was a pokemon cleaning? As soon as the pokemon noticed her it dragged her off, down corridors and spirally stairs to a spacious room. In the center of the room was a giant nest. Sleeping inside the nest was the legendary bird Articuno. A pokemon spoke of myths and legends.

The Jynx approached the giant bird and stirred it awake with a slap. What bold move! Amazingly, the Articuno took no offense and stretched its wings, unleashing a gust of wind. Finding it's self awake the pokemon finally took notice of Steel, who was trying to fix her air from the gust.

You've arrived. I've waited to meet you for so long...

"Waited for me?" Steel raised a brow. Why would a pokemon like this wait for her of all people? "Why...?"

Long ago, we battled, together. As one being.

"As one being? You don't mean..."

Soul, or as it's been named in recent time, PokeSoul? Yes. I do mean that. That was many many years ago, too many to count. There was once a time where people and pokemon's souls were connected and they battled as one. Those times were so peaceful but a figure soon arose trying to control such a skill... We combated with many other skilled warriors... and things happened to get out of hands.... I do not wish to recall...

The pokemon shook her head as she spoke, mauling over memories of past.

We sealed away the power in an ancient tablet in hopes it wouldn't be found. Recent times has only proven our hopes in vain. An individual found the tablet and according to the word of various pokemon, this person is trying to make an army of Soul users.

Steel took this all in slowly. An army? Well, it did make sense she supposed. Rune did steal and kidnap various types of pokemon and trainers for their experiments. Sabrina was a good, not to mention successful, example of this.

"But, why are you telling me this? Do you... intend to battle once more...?"

We cannot idly stand by. You've seen what that fiend is able, have you not?

"Y...yeah. But... I dont know if I can fight. And Mewtwo scares me... she's so strong...!"

So will we, I will teach you everything you need to know. Do not doubt yourself, nor be afraid. You will not fight this enemy alone. Both Moltres and Zapdose will join us in battle.

Steel slowly exhaled.

"I... I trust you... If you really think I can do it I'll try. But... how does this work?"

That is quite simple, I've already acquired the information to allow the Soul transformation. Show me your mother's ring.

Steel blinked. She glanced down to the silver band on her ring finger. Why would she...? suddenly it came to Steel, the dream she had in Lavender Town with the tiny bird. The key is also an important item... was that what the dream was trying to convey? 

Maybe it really was.

Maybe this was fate, the true heir was to live and shepherd a counter attack against Hilda.

Steel lifted her hand to the bird and a cyan light enveloped the two. Slowly the body of Articuno vanished, cold winds spinning around Steel's body like a twister. Lights faded and the spinning ceased. Steel knew she was changed, but how much was the real question. She glanced down at the reflective icy tiles and gasped as she touched her face. Was this really her?

She looked so different!

Her hair was suddenly a paling blue wavy short cut and light blue spiral curls rested on her shoulder. Strapped to her head was a pair of silver goggles. Her skin was paler than usual and makeup was applied to her, black eyeliner, blue eyeshadow and lipstick. Nails were even pained a blue and hands protected with white hand gloves.

She was donned in a light blue short cut jacket and vest along, both decorated with silver buttons. Under the best was a white dress shirt and ascot made from soft white hide. Her skirt reached halfway down her upper thigh. The blue bow attached to her skirt reached floor length and even dragged. Silvery boots reached her knees, which were covered with knee guards. To finish it all off, around her neck was a glowing white cape

"I hardly look like myself at all!"

But of course. It would be for the best to conceal your identity.

"I guess it would be."

ow, let us go. We must locate your friends.

Steel's face nearly fell. Why did Galvin and Brass only come to her attention now?

Ah. Wait. Before you go, can I request you take my maid with you? I've spent so much time with her.

Steel glanced to the Jynx. She smiled and nodded.

"I can do that."

\----

Two boys laid in the snow. Cold and weary as consciousness faded. For a moment, Galvin saw a figure before him. It looked like a woman but he wasn't so sure of it.

Later he woke up with a fuzzy mind but he was no longer in the snow or in the Seafoam caves, instead he was on the back of Bubbles with Steel and Brass on the waves.

"Steel! Youre all right!" he exclaimed, forcing himself upright. She smiled.

"Of course I am, I just got a little lost!"

"You let go of my hand..."

"Nah, I just got lost." she smiled. "We should just be happy were all okay." Galvin sighed and glanced to Brass, giving him a few pokes. The downed boy grunted, indicating he wasnt dead or anything.

"I suppose so."

\---

"She's very nice! I bet the two of you would get along!" Lina smiled. The pair continued down the hallway to their respective rooms.

"Really?"

"Yes, Mrs. Ariana is very nice!" Simon stopped dead in his tracks.

Ariana? She couldn't.... No. That wasn't possible...

It couldn't be that woman...

"Is something wrong Simon?" Linda asked curiously when she noted a lack of footsteps. The boy jumped slightly.

"N-no... I'm fine."


	20. Chapter Nineteen

“Do you think it was a good idea to leave Brass alone?”

“He’s sleeping at the Pokemon Center, he’ll be fine. What’s the worst that could happen?” for a moment the two friends thought they saw fire and Brass laughing like some deranged psycho. The both shook off the thought and continued to wonder around the giant estate on the island.

It was odd to have such a huge estate in ruins and populated by only pokemon but still let people come and go. Was the house specificity built for this? Probably not, as the two ventured around the building they found many human furnishings and other various objects.

The two climbed down a set of stairs for what had to be the tenth time with in the last hour. This staircase led back to the first floor but to an entirely different section than where they started from. The narrow corridor only had a door which Galvin found to be locked when he tried to open it. That seemed a bit out of place.

Steel reached into her pocket and pulled out a rusty silver key. With a flick of the wrist the lock clicked leaving her smiling as she tucked away the key.

“Let’s go, I bet there’s more stuff down here!”

“Where did you get that key from?”

“I found it. Someone must of dropped it long ago.”

“I’ll say. That key is pretty rus-ack!” Steel grabbed him by the arm with no warning and dragged him down the flight of stairs behind the door. It was pitch black. There were no windows on this floor, that was due to the fact that the other floors were above ground although. Galvin shuffled around his belt of pokemon. Maybe his Vulpix could help out…

“I found the light switch!” Steel suddenly exclaimed. Flip of the switch and blinding light filled the area. This area was an absolute mess. Papers and glass scattered across the floor, furniture and shelves overturned and copious amounts of various fluids covered the floor.

What the hell happened here.

Galvin shook his head. Maybe he and Steel should leave… this place was hardly safe and the should report it. It looked like a safety hazard. Galvin glanced around for Steel to find her gone.

“Are you kidding me?”

Brass’s body swayed back and forth as he took a ride down the escalator. Steel and Glavin asked him to do something. What was it again? He tiredly opened his backpack, hoping someone left him a note of what to do. Lucky for him there was indeed a note hastily written by Steel.

Go pick up the fossil pokemon after your nap!  
-Steel

Oh right. The island had a pokemon research facility and they took a tour earlier that day. One their tour they encountered a scientist that claimed that he could revive fossilized pokemon. Both he and Steel decided to challenge that claim with their Helix and Dome fossils (even Galvin’s Old Amber) they found back in Mt. Moon. If it worked Brass would gain a Kabuto and Steel would get an Omystar. What a find that would be.

“Oh, Mr. Elliot! Mr. Elliot!” Brass turned to Nurse Joy. The woman motioned him to come to her desk so he waddled over.

“Yes ma’am?”

“Mr. Elliot, this is Simon Locke,” the young woman motioned to a little raven haired boy with Sentret curled around his neck. “He’s come all the way from Johto to see your friend Steel Selma.”

Well.

This was news to him. He had no idea Steel had a friend in Johto…

“Since you’re Steel’s friend you wouldnt mind keeping an eye on him until she came back would you?”

“Oh, no. That wouldn’t be a problem for me…” the nurse clapped her hands and smiled.

“Great! Take care you two!” The nurse turned away, returning to collecting and healing other trainer’s pokemon. Brass and Simon stared at each other as if they were in the world champion staring contest. Brass wasn’t even sure what he got himself into. He sure as hell wasn’t a babysitter and he knew next to nothing about this kid, even if he was supposed to be a fried of Steel.

“Soooo…”

“So?”

“Let’s go to the research facility.”

“Why?”

“I have to pick up Pokemon.”

“Do they have books there?”

“…Sure?”

“I like books.”

“Oh.” This whole conversation wasn’t awkward at all.

The walk to the facility lasted only ten minutes. The receptionist greeted them and Simon drifted over to a nearby bookshelf almost immediately. Brass saw no harm as long as the kid wasn’t gone by the time he came back. Brass walked down the long hallway to the last room on the left. Inside the room the scientist in charge of the revitalization project was covered in previously fossilized pokemon. An Omystar hanging off his right arm, a Kabuto on his left leg and the Aerodactyl was hanging off his back.

“You’re late!” the scientist barked.

“I was… sleeping…” he vaguely waved to the man. “Why….why are you covered in pokemon?”

“They attached to me as soon as they came to being. They seem to be rather thankful.”

“Oh.” The man abruptly ripped the Kabuto and Omystar from his body and attached them to Brass. A Kabuto on his head, and Omystar to his chest. The Aerodactyl got the message and flew circles around Brass. The preteen stood there a little longer before awkwardly backing out of the room and back to Simon, who nearly had a heart attack.

“Why are you covered in pokemon?!”

“I…I don’t know. The researcher just gave me our pokemon like this. Just, stuck them to my body. I dont know why.” an awkward silence hug in the air for a while. The two eventually left the building and returned to the pokemon center, being gawked by every passing trainer.

\+ + +

Steel shuffled through the various papers. Something useful had to be here. Somewhere.

Do not worry Steel. I am sure there is some information to the project left here. Steel paused her search to glance at her ring.

“What’s so important about this project again? You never did explain…”

The research that was previously carried out in this building was put into creating Mewtwo. My hope is that we can find some information on Mewtwo and utilize it against this Hilda woman in battle.

“Oh. Well, that does make sense but how can you be so sure this is where Mewtwo was made?”

It may not be one hundred percent reliable but, pokemon do communicate with each other when big things happen. Reports tell that Mewtwo was angry at humans for their experiments on other pokemon just to create it. In the end the pokemon in this building were unharmed by it’s rampage.

Many of the pokemon from that incident remained here on the island but they did share word with other pokemon and information spread across the sea and came to me. It’s more than likely this event was covered up by the human government.

“Oh. Well, I guess that makes sense.” Steel shrugged and continued her search. Deeper she went into the area where the mess worsened. The area was scorched and burned from floor to wall. Steel pushed a knocked over bookshelf into place with little to no effort, although as she did so stray books fell and even stubbed her foot. Wincing, she picked up the book. She was about to close and reshelf the book when something of interest caught her attention.

Sketches of Mew and various notes and sticky notes wedged into the book. This was definitely something useful. She tucked the book into her bag then placed the remaining books back onto the shelf just as Galvin finally caught up with her.

“What are you do-?!”

“I’m all done here” Steel interrupted, smiling brightly. Galvin stared at her for a moment before replying with an ‘oh’. The pair quickly backtracked a way out of the building and to the pokemon center where they found Brass covered in pokemon. Steel let out a shrill scream of delight as her eyes locked on the Omystar. She ripped the pokemon off of Brass’s chest and cuddled the shellfish pokemon, and even rubbed it against her face in delight.

“It worked! It worked it worked it worked!! I have a real life Omystar! Oh my gosh this is so amazing!!”

“That’s great and all,” Brass mumbled, trying to shake off the Aerodactyl. “But you have a visitor, some kid from Johto or whatever.” Steel blinked. She looked in the direction Brass was pointing to. In a black leather chair was a boy with black hair. Steel squinted her eyes. He was vaguely familiar…

The only one she knew living in Johto was… Simon. She reached into her back and pulled out the framed photo of herself and a young boy. She glanced between the photo and the boy, who was giving her a look.

“Simon…?”

“Yep!”

“…I had no idea this was you…” Simon scratched his head.

“Yeah, I guess that would be right. I should of sent a reply to your letter with a picture of me.”

“So… why are you here?”

“Did you fall on your head?” the boy huffed. “YOU sent me a letter asking me to come see you!”

“Maybe…” Simon sighed, pulling the envelope out of his bag and offering it to Steel.

“You’re still a mess…” she stuck her tongue out as she took the letter from him. She read it over once, twice and even three times before it settled in. This wasn’t her hand writing. This wasn’t what was in the letter she asked Galvin to deliver long ago. This penmanship was familiar although.

“Of course,” She smiled, a bit forced. She turned to Galvin. “Galvin, can you come upstairs with me? I left the present I chose for Simon up there.”

“A present!? Really?” Simon gasped, astonished.

“Yep! It’s really special too!” Steel grabbed Galvin by the arm and pushed him up the escalator and to the room leaving Simon and Brass alone. Simon glanced to Brass to find that his Kabuto was on his face, screeching like a banshee while trying to eat it.

Simon didnt know what to do.

No one really knows how to handle an extinct pokemon anyway….

“Steel, what’s wrong?”

“I didnt write this letter.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“I didn’t write it. I never asked Simon to come to Kanto. The penmanship is close to mine… but this isn’t the letter I asked you to deliver.” She spilled rather quickly.

“If that’s not the case, who sent it?”

“I think… it was Hilda…”

“Hilda…?”

“Mom and dad sometimes took me to Rune base… and Hilda handled a lot of paperwork. She could be really good at faking a person’s hand writing… I just… know this isn’t what I wrote and I know Hilda is after me. What’s stopping her from getting me through other people?”

“Don’t worry, we’ll protect Simon.” Galvin smiled, placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder. Steel smiled.

“Thank you Galvin…” As his hand fell back to his side, Steel reached into her bag and pulled out the foldable black traveler bike that was in her bag for at least three or so months. She was lucky she kept forgetting to mail it off. Galvin grabbed the bike by its back wheel and help pull it out the room. Simon was overjoyed the second he saw his gift. He circled his gift with stars in his eyes. A bike! A brand new bike too! All for him! Man, Nick would be so jealous!

Meanwhile Brass was still on the ground, although this time the Kabuto was not trying to rip off his face but rather, resting on his stomach.


	21. Chapter Twenty

Galvin and Brass jumped awake as an ear shattering scream woke them. It was soon discovered it was not screaming but rather crying. Steel tried to explain herself but any form of sense was drowned out by her blubbers. Both boys tried to sooth her tears, Brass glanced over and noticed that Simon was missing. He informed Steel but she cried even harder and wailed louder.

It seemed… that was connected to her tears…

They waited for the boy to reappear but after twenty minutes, he didn’t. Finding this to be odd, Galvin went down stairs to search for him. There wasn’t any sign of him and even Nurse Joy reported she did not see the boy since he went to bed last night.

He returned to the room empty handed, but not for long. Brass handed him an envelope. It was hastily opened and addressed to Steel. Things… were starting to add up.

“They kidnapped him? Really?” Galvin spat. “Sometimes I cannot believe the gal of Rune.”

“How did they even get in?” Galvin was about to shrug as he noticed a sparkle on the tiles of the floor. He crouched down and ran his middle and index finger across the floor. His fingers were covered in a green powder. With a Bulbsaur as his starter he found it was easy to deduct this was sleeping powder.

“They must of used sleeping powder on us.”

“What’s the point of that when we are already asleep?”

“It probably put us in a deeper sleep so they could sneak in and take what they wanted without waking us.” Galvin wiped the dust on his pants leg. “I know you’re going out today, but don’t file a missing person report.”

“Why not?”

“That would cause a panic. A big one, not only that parents on both ends would find out about our interactions with Rune. I don’t think they’re going to hurt the kid… just, they’re trying to call Steel out.”

“Oh… I’m not so sure Galvin but if you think so, I wont say anything.”

“Trust me, I want to say something to the police too.” Galvin grumbled as he approached Steel on the balcony. She smiled lightly, which he returned, before she fixed her gaze upon the sea with a heavy sigh.

\+ + +

Brass trudged into the gym with Kama the Kabuto hanging off his head. The pokemon hissed at any trainer that attempted to come after Brass, the trainer would stop running and back up with their face frozen in a mixed expression of horror and a smug smirk.

It was weird.

Soon enough Brass made it to Blain, somehow Kama knew this was the leader and began to make clicking sounds and foam at the mouth. At least the foam was due to bubbling salt water and not actual rabies.

He… he wouldn’t be sure how to handle that…

“I see you made use of out science facilities young man.” the elderly man in white and red noted.

“Yeah…”

“Good show! Show me the power of your revived friend!” Kama jumped off Brass and into the battle field. The shelled pokemon scuttled around in an energetic manner. With a laugh Blain clutched his cane and let his faithful Arcanine. The dog like pokemon unleashed a roar in an attempt to intimidate Kama. It held no effect and the shellfish pokemon foamed again.

“Is your friend okay boy?”

“Uh… I think so. He kinda does it every time he gets into a fight.”

“I see.” Before Brass could give a command Kama ripped out a chunk of the gym’s floor and threw it square in the Arcanine’s face. It must have been a hard hit since the giant dog winced and end up taking a few steps back, disoriented. With another screech Kama suddenly spewed mud from its mouth as if it was a regular water gun attack.

Brass remained horrified as it attached to the face of the Arcanine and scratched away at it. It seemed when this pokemon fought it went for the kill. It was more than likely the nature of it’s time that made it that way. This poor guy was going to have issues adjusting with the other pokemon. Blain didn’t seem to mind all the madness happening to his poor partner, as a scientist he was obviously interested in the revived fossil. Blain soon called back his partner and threw a badge at Brass.

“What? That’s it…? Just like that?”

“If I had my faithful Rapidash we could continue but the poor girl is too hurt to fight at the moment and your crazy little Kabuto beat up my Arcanine before he could get a move in.”

“That was…. anti climatic.”

“Yes it was but to be fair a Kabuto is both rock and water. Double the pain.” The old man let out yet another laugh and walked off to make some calls to repair his gym. Brass begrudgingly left the gym as Kama crawled over his body. Man this little dude needed to calm down… hopefully he did before he evolved, if it didn’t that would be a nightmare…

Shaking his head Brass was on his way to the pokemon center when he saw a familiar face. It was the researcher Bill they found in the Cerulean Cape a while back.

“Oh, hey Bill.” The researcher flinched. He quickly spun around and sighed.

“Geez Brass, you scared the bejeezus out of me!”

“Sorry, so, what brings you here?”

“I actually came here looking for a strong trainer to commission for some help.”

“Help with what exactly?”

“I have a friend who is creating a network trade system, he needs a ruby to get it working but it’s quite deep in a volcano on Mt. Ember.”

“Well, I could do that.”

“Really? That would be a relief! I mean, I know you wouldn’t run off with the ruby!”

“So, how soon do you need to leave?”

“As soon as your ready I suppose. You’ll probably need to round up your friends wont you?”

“Yeah… just give me a minute.” Brass quickly climbed up the stairs to his friend’s room. Steel was now dressed and looking a little better, but still tired. Brass explained the situation and the two friends agreed to go along with him, Galvin using this trip as an excuse for a mini-vacation for him and Steel. Steel seemed to brighten up more with the idea of a mini-vacation.

So, after quickly packing up the pre-teens jumped onto Bill’s boat and took off sailing towards the Sevii Islands. Steel and Galvin quickly got into vacation mode as the two sunbathed in swimwear on the ship’s deck with calm faces. Hours passed before they arrived to Sevii Island’s Isle One as soon as they touched down Steel and Galvin quickly fled to the beaches, Brass and Bill shortly joined them.

“Alright, that’s Mt. Ember. It’s a bit of a distance but you should be fine. Once you reach the mound you’ll have to climb up a bit but you should find a cave.” Bill explained, pointed out the target mountain.

“And the ruby is in the cave?”

“Yep. Once you come back you can find me in the pokecenter with my pal.” Bill pat Brass on his back and left for the pokecenter.

“So, how do you plan to cross the water?” Galvin asked, adjusting his sunglasses.

“Uh….”

And so, that’s how Brass found himself fishing on the shores off Isle One. His friends offered alternate methods of how to handle the situation. Just rent a boat or borrow a pokemon off one of his friends. Brass objected both options saying he was in need of his own water pokemon anyway, which was true. Kama sure as hell couldn’t carry him with the size it currently was.


	22. Chapter Twenty One

Shortly after arriving at the beaches Brass borrowed Steel’s fishing rod and haphazardly threw the hook into the sea. After a few attempts and entering waist deep water, he landed in deeper water, raising his chances for a suitable pokemon. And so, he waited.

A couple of hours passed and he was sure he was developing a sun burn. He was about to reel in the line when it was suddenly tugged sharply. Gritting his teeth, he began to pull the line in. His catch popped up at the surface, it was a Gyarados.

Brass stared at the pokemon, debating which to use to subdue the giant. In this situation, all he could use was Kama. The shellfish pokemon screeched and ran across water to latch onto its enemy’s face.

“Don’t… don’t hurt her too badly…” Kama seemed to completely disregard what Brass said and continued his violent attacks. Brass semi-reluctantly pulled an ultra ball from his back pocket and chucked it at the Gyarados to end all of this madness. The pokeball sank to the bottom of the water and Kama scuttled across the water to his side. Brass stared uncertainty at the spot the giant serpent was previously.

He couldn’t tell if he caught it but lost the pokeball in water or if he didn’t catch it and the pokemon swam off. His question was answered when the Gyarados breeches the surface, lifted him onto his back and suddenly began to sail away.

Galvin watched the whole scene occur with an amused look. He lowered his sunglasses and glanced over to Steel, who was currently sunbathing.

“He caught a Gyarados,”

“Cool.”

“At least that way we wont be squished on Bubbles.”

“Good. He says all the extra weight is bad for his back.”

“Seriously?”

“To be fair, were all like a hundred twenty pounds each, or at least around there. While he’s only a hundred and eighty nine so it’s about twice his weight on his back.”

“Yeash, if I knew that I would of arranged getting another water pokemon sooner.” Steel shrugged.

“He says it’s a good workout at least.”

“I guess that’s a plus.”

As for Brass, Syldra made it as far as she could reach on Kindle road. With giant stones blocking the way Brass had to get off his pokemon, walk across the sandy shores and to the other shore of the road and let her out yet again to reach the mountain Bill pointed out. What a pain in the butt…

Now at the base of the mountain Brass glanced upwards, watching the peak of the mound climb higher and higher. That was some distance. Well, he wouldn’t make any just standing here. Brass started up the the man made steps carved from hardened lava. He pushed a thought out of his mind almost immediately. After all, Bill wouldn’t of sent him, or really anyone, up the mountain if it was volcanic active.

Speaking of Bill, just as he informed Brass there was a cavern entrance someway up the mountain. The hole was a little small but he could fit through it if he crouched down. So he did. The only problem now was that it was pitch dark. Shuffling in the darkness he searched for Flamin Billy’s pokeball. He had to be careful. One false move and he could pull out the wrong pokemon. If it was Syldra he was good as dead….

He was lucky and pulled out Clefa Star instead. Well, at least he wasn’t dead. On his second try he managed to pull out Billy. He quickly explained the situation to his starter and Billy lead the way down the path as Clefa hitched a free ride on Brass’s shoulder.

The deeper they went into the cave the more fire and rock based pokemon were found roaming around with interested expressions. This was more or less due to the caverns becoming hotter and hotter, creating a suitable environment for the pokemon, not people but for some strange reason Brass wasn’t feeling the heat at all. It was just as weird that he wasn’t bothered with the snow at all.

Brass continued down a series of ladders, moving aside and smashing various bolder and rocks that go in his way, heading deeper and deeper into the mountain. It got to the point where the mountain was too uncomfortable for Clefa, forcing him to return to his pokeball. On the fourth floor several slabs of marble were found on the floor, Brass tried to read the text but no avail due to the text being merely dots.

“Who the heck reads dots?” Brass huffed climbing down the ladder. Billy shrugged and the two of them continued down the winding path. The path continued to wind and wind until it reached a dead end. The ruby he was searching for was embedded in the wall. He tried to pull it from the wall with his bare hands but the second he touched the ruby his hands fell to his side and he looked around.

He could of sworn he heard a voice. A voice calling out to him.

He turned his back to the ruby and started to make his way out of the cave. Clefa jumped from it’s pokeball to deliver a powerful double slap to the walls. It managed to chip away enough of the wall to ease the giant gem stone out. Clefa collected the stone and followed after Billy and Brass, worrying about his trainer’s well being.

\+ + +

“Why did you two stay at the beach again?” Bill sighed at the couple curled up at the Poke Center’s fire place.

“It seemed like a good idea at the time.” Galvin admitted. Steel let out a tiny sneeze. Galvin reached over and pat her back.

“It’s the middle of winter!” Bill shrieked.

“You’re such an angry man Bill.” Steel giggled.

“I’m not angry! I’m hardly ever angry!!”

“You sure aren’t acting like it.”

\+ + +

Brass scaled the mountain in no time. But all in a daze, no consciousness and utterly monotoned as he gave commands to his pokemon as necessary. Brass continued walking to the edge of the volcano. He didn’t seem to care, even as he walked along a spiral path into the mouth of the volcano. Once Brass reached the bottom he finally regained consciousness.

He was utterly baffled. Where was he? How did he get here? Brass nearly flipped out of his skin when he realized he was inside the volcano surrounded by pillars and arcs made of some sort of stone material. He turned to run back up the stairs when flames burst from the ground. Brass shrieked like a little girl and fell to the ground.

From the flames a figure formed, a yellow bird of flames and fury. Moltres. Brass opened his mouth to scream once more but not a sound came out.

The same as always. A coward…

Words still refused to come.

Sad that the job of Protector falls in your hands but I cannot fight fate, we were destined to meet once more since the day you were born.

“…Destined….?” Brass managed to choke out.

You were born to fight those of ill intention and protect those who couldn’t fight for themselves. That is not only your job but the job of heroes of many regions.

“Protector… you called me a protector? What is that?”

Shame. You have forgotten all see… Has your friend chosen to disregard you and keep secrets? Fine, I shall tell you, while a soul user has a job to protect. The protector’s job is to specifically protect the guardian and the leader.

“My friend… what are you talking about?”

The chosen of Ardicuno has already become one with her partner. They know much about the plans of Rune and are even creating a counter attack or has she left you in the dark because of your utter uselessness?

Brass found himself speechless.

‘She’

He had only one female friend. Steel. What was she doing? Counter attacking against Rune? How could this happen?

He grabbed his head and pulled at his hair.

I see. She really has valued you as utterly useless…

“N-no!” Brass snapped. “Steel doesn’t think that! If she hasn’t said anything it must be for a good reason…! She’s my friend and I’m her’s!”

Do you truly think that?

“Of course I do!” Brass bellowed. “I’ve been her friend since she first came to Pallet Town… I’ve been always at her side… she’s a good girl with good intentions but she always carries such heavy burdens and hates worrying people or making them mad… of course she wouldn’t say anything because she wouldn’t want to worry anyone but that doesn’t mean she thinks lowly of me…!”

Tell me, would you, if given the power, would you protect her, the guardian and the world?

“If… if it would lighten the load of all her worries, yes. I would.”

Present me your father’s pocket watch.

“Excuse you?”

Did I stutter? I said show me that pocket watch. I will lend you my power but I require a prized possession to do so.

Brass sighed, lifting the pocket watch to the pokemon. Moltres’ body soon became simple whips of flames that circles Brass’ body. Much like Steel’s he went under a change. His brown hair and eyes took on a redish hue. He was dressed in an rusty orange dress shirt, sleeved rolled up before his elbow with a pale yellow vest on top. Brown-red pair of pants and heavy brown boots that reached his knees. To finish off the outfit was brown fingerless gloves and his own glowing red cape.

“What is even going on?!”

Rather simple, when a human becomes one with their partner the human adapts an appearance that looks like the pokemon.

“So… can I shoot fire and fly?”

Yes.

Meanwhile, Clefa was still scaling the volcano. He had no idea what was wrong with Brass but he had to find his trainer before he did something stupid. The little pokemon stopped running to catch its breath and at that moment a figure flew from inside of the volcano. Clefa flipped onto it’s back and flailed, purely startled. Brass noticed his partner pokemon and blushed. Oh geez. Did he really forget Clefa? She scooped the pokemon into his arms.

“Oh cool buddy, you remembered the ruby! I’m sorry I forgot you, let’s go to the Poke Center.” Brass took off flying, over the mountain, kindle road’s grasslands and the sea. Brass touched down on the beach, returning to his usual clothes, and made his way to the Poke Center. He tugged the handle.

It was locked.


	23. Chapter Twenty Two

Doors swished open and Steel thoughtlessly walked forward without checking, her boots pressed against something squishy. Glancing down she found Brass sleeping on the path with Clefa and the ruby curled up in his arms.

“I found him!” Steel called, grabbing her friends by his foot and dragging him into the building.

“That was quick,” Galvin commented watching Steel drag Brass to Bill and his friend. Steel handed over the ruby to the scientists and dragged Brass to the escalators. She struggled for some distance before Galvin approached and lugged Brass up the escalators. Brass and Clefa were then placed down on a bed in the rental room. Now all that remained was to wait for Bill to finish his work and he would take them back to Cinnibar island and pay Brass for his hard work.

“I’m glad Brass is okay.”

“Yeah me too, I was a little worried that he wasn’t here at curfew.”

“A little? You were pacing in circles for hours!” Steel huffed. Galvin joined her on the couch.

“Maybe a little, but he’d fine now.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yeah, he has no sings of pneumonia or anything and he always was resistant to the cold air.” He glanced over to her, mildly concerned. “What about you?”

“What?” She blinked.

“Are you feeling okay? With Simon and all…?”

“I feel better… but I still worry about him. He’s so young and he must be scared to death… I just wish I knew what they were doing…” Galvin hugged her around her shoulders with a sigh.

“They won’t do anything to him, I’m sure of that.”

“But how can you be sure?”

“They wouldn’t of brought him all the way out here if he didn’t have some value to them. For the time being…. we just have to wait…”

——

Galvin later disappeared that afternoon, more than likely to get a look around the islands some more, leaving Steel in charge of watching Brass. Not that she minded it. Brass woke up an hour or so after Galvin departed. Steel was ready to deliver a lecture about being out so late and not even taking a coat in this weather when Brass grasped her hand and stared at her mother’s ring.

“What are you…?”

“Articuno. That’s your partner, right?” Steel flinched, yanking her hand away.

“No! I-I dont have an Articuno, that’s silly.”

“Don’t worry, I can do that soul thingy too with Moltres. He was the one that told me about you and Articuno.”

“Oh….”

“How long have you been able to fuse?”

“About a week or so….”

“I see…” the air around the two quickly became silent and awkward. Brass scratched his head. “So, uh, Moltres, he said it’s my job to protect you and… whoever is the Guardian is. So, I’ll do my best.”

“I’ll make sure of that too… the only problem is… where can we even practice fighting?” Brass shrugged.

“That’s a good question. Maybe the birds have a castle in the sky somewhere we can sneak off to.”

“Right… Articuno had a castle inside the Sea Foam islands and it was huge. Well, we can ask them when we’re alone, Bill or Galvin can come up at any second and I’d rather not take that chance…” Brass nodded and fell back against the bed.

“’sides, I’m still tired…”

“Yeah, Articuno said the whole soul thing drains you at first. It takes a while to get use to it. You were also outside all last night.”

“The doors were locked.”

“We realized that.” Steel jumped to her feet. “but don’t worry about that. I’ll go get you something to eat.” Steel left the room with a smile, although on the inside she was troubled. It was nice to have another ally in this fight against Rune so she wouldn’t go into battle alone but, why Brass? Why did it have to be her best friend? Her friends were the last people she wanted involved with Rune…

Especially since the Rune incident from five years ago took Galvin’s father and mother from him and mortally wounded Brass’s dad to the point the man was trapped in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. While it wasn’t her fault, she was the heir to Rune and the guilt of the event burdened her for years.

.

..

…

..

.

“Do you know what’s going to happen to her?”

“They say she has a family friend in Pallet Town.”

“At least she wont be here. Viridain doesn’t need more trouble makers like those Hoffmanns.”

“Oh watch you mouth! She’s only a child!”

“You know it’s true! It’s all Rune’s fault for that explosion!”

Young Steel shook her head as she waited at the doorstep. Her black clad toes danced around and tiny fingers curled around the framed photo of her deceased parents.

“I can’t believe I got stuck dragging you here. This is so lame.”

“You can leave Sean.” Steel huffed through her depression. She didn’t need this jerk to be mean to her now, or ever really. The boy suddenly grabbed her by a chunk of hair, making her flinch.

“I will gladly go, but if I find out you do have something to do with that brat’s disappearance, you’re in trouble.”

“Shut up. He probably ran away because you’re a giant jerk!” Sean sneered, letting go of Steel and making his way back to home with his Shuppet at his side. She sighed as soon as he was gone. She knew where he was but she would never tell, he would never be safe if Sean knew where he was.

The young girl took a deep breath and reached out for the door. The door was suddenly yanked open before she could knock. The woman on the other side looked distressed and tired but noticing Steel she calmed down.

“Oh thank goodness, I was afraid you would still be alone in Viridian…” The woman smiled, reaching out and taking Steel’s suitcase. “Please, come in. I’ll show you to your room.”

—-

Steel’s first night in Pallet Town went rather smoothly. The room her adoptive mother, Leena, set aside for her was in fine order and the girl easily unpacked her things and found a place where they belong in the room. Today was going to be her first day in Pallet Town Academy, she usually had a maid back at home tutor her so this was a new experience for her…

She stood before the class, keeping her eyes on her shoes the whole time as she was introduced to the class. She gave a meek hello when prompted to and looked up to the table the teacher pointed to. The table was empty, at least when compared to the other tables, save for two boys. One boy with coppery brown hair and brown eyes held his hand up high. The other boy seemed to lack that enthusiasm the other had, his sandy brown hair hanging over his green eyes full of sadness.

“Brass and Galvin, Steel will be joining you at your table.” her named seemed to get the attention of the saddened boy and quickly did his attitude shift to one of anger and rage.

From there, things did not flow so smoothly. While Brass seemed to accept her with smiles and friendship, Galvin did not so much. Any opportunity was he given he would drag Brass away from Steel and bully her. From hiding her lunchbox, dipping the ends of her hair in paint and in the process ruining her clothes and when it came to PE it was a field day. Purposely pelting her with balls, tripping and shoving her.

Her mother would always inquire why she came home a mess but she would never confess, thinking she could try again and talk to Galvin. Maybe they could fix it all with a talk but that was not how fate wanted it to go. Galvin managed to throw a dodge ball so hard at Steel she stumbled back and hit her head on the floor. Steel began to cry at the pain and Galvin laughed. This pushed Brass over the edge, he cross the field line and tackled Galvin, screaming as he threw kicks and punches. The class scattered to try and locate the teacher or remain behind to egg on the fight while some girls went to Steel’s side.

It was needless to say when parents and guardians came to the office no one was happy. Daisy apologized many times on the behalf of her younger brother and grandfather, who could not join them for the parental meeting, and promised she would talk to him about his behavior. Brass’s father was simply upset with that fact that his son got into a fight, with a friend no less. Lenna felt rather saddened that Steel couldn’t help her and wished she could of done something sooner.

That night the heated argument at the Oak household could be heard all around the town.

The days following the fight Galvin maintained a distance between himself and Brass and Steel. Everyone watched him dance about in his seat„ which was relocated for the time being, with hesitation, he seemed like he wanted to speak but was unable to. About a week later he finally managed to blurt it out as a group of students were trying to ask Steel to play with them.

“I’m sorry!” Everything seemed to stop for a moment. Steel opened her mouth to speak but downed out as the group of students unleashed a wave of scorn and anger upon him, making him flinch but he made no arguments. After all, he did bully Steel letting his sadness of his parents passing and anger aimed at Rune get the best of him. In the end, Daisy was right. She was unrelated, she just happened to be the kid of the two creators of the organization and she was suffering in her own rights too. So, he continued to stand still and silent as the students barked at him, claiming it was wrong how he suddenly wanted to be buddy buddy with her, and he was just lying.

“Shut up!” Brass barked with ferocity. Everyone jumped at his booming voice. Steel glanced between him and Galvin, who was near in tears at this point. Brass made a motion with his hand, as if a signal to speak up.

“Uhm… you’re all being mean to him…!”

“But…” a student tried to speak up but Brass gave them the scariest look he could muster.

“My mom said people can make mistakes! They don’t always feel bad but they can and it can be hard to admit some times! Galvin said he’s sorry… so he’s sorry!” Steel offered a hand, slowly. “So, let’s try this again… I’m Steel Selma, it’s nice to meet you!”

“I-I’m Galvin Oak.” The boy choked. He wasn’t really expecting her to stand up of all people after how bad he was.

“Let’s be friends!” and with that Galvin began to bawl.

—-

Steel found herself smiling as she left her memories. It never was her fault but… she always felt bad…

“What are you still doing out here? It’s cold.” a voice called behind her. She turned to face Galvin. She cracked a smile.

“I was just thinking…” Assuming the worst, Galvin pulled her into a hug. She blinked but accepted it. “Don’t worry it wasn’t about Simon, just… Rune and stuff.”

“And stuff?” he questioned, holding her out at arm length. “What kind of stuff?”

“When we were little.” Galvin paled a little. He… didn’t like recalling those memories. He still couldn’t believe Steel wanted to be friends with him after how awful he treated her.

“Oh…” Steel threw here arms around his neck, throwing him off balance for a second. The two had a tight hold on the other as the regained balance. “Don’t worry about it, you’re my best friend Galvin.”

“I’m sorry…” he muttered none the less.

——

The ship made it to Pallet Town with no issues. The group bid farewells to Bill and left to their houses for the night. Each household had a dinner waiting for their respective trainer. Steel shared stories and did all she could to keep her mother in the dark about Rune. After dinner she took and quick shower and made her way to Viridian City.

She could careless if it was getting late. She knew how Giovanni Hoffmann accepts challenges at any hour. Once she made it to the Poke Center she accessed her account in the PC and swapped her Rhydon for Paris, who was now a Parasect. She stormed out of the center and to the gym. As she predicted, it was unlocked.

She strolled in with a serious face, a strong poise and Paris’s pokeball firmly grasped in her hand. She noticed a body leaning against the wall. She glared at the person. A thin, pale young man with red hair dressed in a black dress coat and crisp navy dress pants.

“Well, well, well. I never thought I would see your ugly mug again Shinjiro.”

“It’s Selma now,” Steel huffed, wrinkling her nose. “And I could say the same about you Sean. Going to mock me all day or what? I’ve got to beat “daddy dearest” so get outta my way.”

He suddenly laughed, getting close to her face with a somewhat crazy look.

“YOU best my old man in a pokemon battle? You must be joking!” Steel swung her arm and slammed her fist square into Sean’s face.

“Shut up.” she grumbled, storming past him as he grabbed his bleeding nose. “You have no right to criticize me.”

That was the main reason she avoided coming here with Galvin and Brass. She had a history with the Hoffmann family. Her family knew what they did behind the scenes, and both heads of the households hated each other for their life styles. Rune dedicated to peace and tranquility, Rocket reserved for domination and war. Sean was the heir of Rocket and he made it his point to harass her due to being Rune’s heir and to drag out their parent’s battle. Hard to believe the two households didn’t break into warfare before the Rune Incident occurred.

Steel made it to the arena of the gym where onlookers gawked at her. Across the field and dressed in black was Giovanni. The man adjusted his tie and glared at her.

“I never expected you to reach this far Shinjiro.”

“Selma,” Steel corrected with a huff. “Let’s get this over with, I need to get home.”

“Tell me Selma,” his spoke her name with utter disgust and disapproval. “Where is my other brat of a son?”

“He probably ran away because you’re a shitty father.” she practically mirrored the same response she gave Sean years ago when he asked the same question

“I see, I will have to beat the answer out of you.”

Lass Steel VS Leader Giovanni!

Steel unleashed Paris onto the field and immediately started off with a Energy Ball. The grass type attack had the obvious advantage against the Rhyhorn. Overall Steel had the type advantage against Giovanni but not skill. He held the title of gym leader for quite some time, at least twenty five years, even more than Surge.

Steel commanded Paris to dig and follow up with an Energy Ball. The giant mushroom crab pokemon burrowed under the field and peeked out under the unprotected underbelly of the Rhyhorn. The green ball of earthly nature slammed into the rocky rhino, sending it up into the air and slamming down, unconscious.

Giovanni eyes widened for a second which followed a smirk. Usually he could whip out any smug brat in one go. It seems Steel had some strength. How amusing.

Dugtrio joined the battle, burrowing a hole too quick to be seen. The digger pokemon burrowed holes across the battlefield creating many holes and a huge amount of distance between Paris and it’s self. Frustrated by this game of whack a mole, Steel commanded Paris go underground and fight the Dugtrio. It was hard to tell what was even going on but regardless, both sides shouted attacks. Paris resurfaced, rather beaten up, so the pokemon was swapped out for Bubbles. She quickly ordered the pokemon to focus its water attack into the holes to flush out Dugtiro. The pokemon was ejected out of the underground tunnel system and hit the ground out cold.

Giovanni snarled, down to his last pokemon and so Nidoking took stage. Steel quickly ordered a blizzard from Bubbles. With a mighty roar strings of cold air and developing ice chunks pelted the enemy. With the floor being wet and muddy the cold air froze Nidoking’s muddy feet. The ice climbed over the pokemon’s body encasing it in ice.

Bubbles crouched down, charged its frozen pray and smashed his head into the Nidoking, dislodging it from the ground and sending it flying. The impact shattered the ice, the Nidoking slammed its foot on the ground. The ground under Bubble’s suddenly gave away as energy burst from it. Bubbles flew up but maintained a defense by withdrawing in it’s shell. Nidoking slammed it’s foot onto the giant shell, as if to crush it under its foot but Bubbles launched a hydro cannon which rocketed both of the pokemon into the air. Bubbles followed with yet another hydro cannon as it emerged from it’s shell. A direct hit to Nidoking’s chest and the pokemon plummeted to the ground, unconscious.

With a grin, Steel placed her hands on her hips.

“How’s that for you Hoffmann?” She casually strolled up to the referee and collected her badge. On her way out she made sure to step on the foot of the gawking Sean.

“Victory is very sweet.” She mused inspecting the leaf shaped badge.

—-

“How long until we can move?”

“Only a couple of days. Once the opening ceremony for the Pokemon League begins everyone will focus all their attention there and not on us. The move will be smooth sailing from there.”

“That’s good and Linda?”

“She’s in good hands sir.”

“I see…”


	24. Chapter Twenty Three

When Galvin and Brass came to retrieve Steel the next day they found her curled up in her bed with a smile. For some reason the smile seemed to be incredibly off and slightly creepy. They couldn’t tell why although. Leena explained that Steel left after dinner to challenge the Virdian City gym leader and returned late that night with a badge.

So the boys challenged the gym by themselves at the end of the day both boys had earned their final badge. Unknown to them, and even Steel (who was sleeping her life away at this rate, the parents and guardians were hard at work putting together a party in celebration. When Steel did manage to wake up, she stumbled down the stairs while still dressed in her pjs. She hardly noticed the parents decorating the room and she began to eat a small serving from the rice bowl at the table.

“Thank you for the food.” she yawned and began to eat the food. No one really tried to stop her. After all, once she finished eating she returned to her room and was completely oblivious of the decorations. She did not return downstairs until her mother called for her a few hours later. She was still dressed in her pjs, but far more awake this time around.

“Oh wow! A party!” the girl recklessly slid down the staircase banister and skipped over to the table. “What’s it for?” Leena laughed lightly.

“Its for you and your friend’s dear. You all collected the gym badges!”

“A party for us?! How cool!” At that moment the door opened and the two victors walked into the house, both slightly dirty with chunks of dist and rubble on their clothes. The boys grinned. Steel threw her arms into the air.

“This is great! We can enter the Pokemon League now!” the three preteens let out a shout as family members congratulated them and brought out the dinner. The night was spent laughing and eating to a heart’s content.

When the morning came and the parents arose they found the kids curled up together in a corner, Brass’s head on Galvin’s stomach, using it as a pillow, Steel’s head on his shoulder while one arm went around Steel’s waist and the other draped over Brass’s stomach.

Daisy and Leena got to work cleaning, once the preteens awoke they tried to offer help but it was rejected and they were reminded that the League was accepting participates for only three more days, meaning they had to book it as fast as they could through Victory Road. Brass wheeled his dad home to change for the day as the remaining two rushed off to shower and change. Once properly redressed and stocked on goods the three took off after saying their farewells once more.

The trio was fortunate, with only three days left before registration closes the tunnel was nearly empty. Every trainer knew this was no time for dwaddling and unnecessary battles if they wanted to get out of the cave on time. The trail of Victory Road was a pain in the ass for many trainers, consisting of dead ends, pitfalls and, for whatever reason, puzzles. Galvin, although, masterfully solved the puzzles and lead his friends onward to victory, which took a day and a half.

By three in the afternoon the trio emerged from the cave and rushed to the glorious league building awaiting them. Glass doors slid open to reveal a rather crowded entrance way. Trainers running just about everywhere, to the market for last minute items, to the overworked nurse to heal their pokemon, rooms to trade pokemon and rooms to spar.

Brass pointed out a sign which directed trainers with and without badges where to go to sign up. While this seemed odd, it actually wasn’t, badges were not necessary to join the Pokemon League Tournament contrary to popular belief of new trainers. Badges merely allowed trainers to skip preliminary rounds for proving their strength and head into the quarter finals.

One by one the preteens presented their badges and trainer to an official. With a quick scan the badges were proven to be real and they were registered. Although, all that remained was to wait for the final day of sign ups for the announcement of what to do next. The three registered for a room at the poke center and retreated for the afternoon.

A couple of days passed before sign ups were closed. Trainers eagerly awaited in the various lobbies and facilities for the next bit of information.

“Hello and welcome trainers, I am Lance of the Kanto Elite Four.” Murmurs floated around for a moment. It was rare that anyone of the Elite Four, let alone the leader, would hear or seen so early in a tournament. “I am quite pleased to see so many of you here to enter the 23rd Pokemon League Tournament! With registration closed and all two hundred and thirty entrants present, let it be known the tournament will begin on December 27th, giving all entrants a month to do final preparations and training. Aim for the stars, and maybe you’ll be able to fight the Elite Four and myself!” Just like that the announcement ended and trainers began to quickly disperse.

Steel faced Brass. Now was a perfect opportunity to train their Soul powers, all they had to do was lose Galvin for a while.

"Galv-"

"I’m going to go off by myself for a while, is that okay?" The two blinked, surprised by such a question.

"Uh. Sure, if you want…" Galvin smiled.

"Thanks. Take care of yourselves." With a nod Galvin departed. Steel scratched her head.

"That was surprising…"

"Yeah, I guess. Galvin probably wants to keep his strategy a secret from is since he’ll totally end up fighting one of us."

"That makes sense."

"C’mon, let’s blow this popsicle stand." The two rushed out the building to find a clear spot. Once finding said spot flames and ice engulfed the respective kid and they shot into the sky.

—-

Days have passed since then. A castle among the clouds was quickly found by Steel and Brass. With age the castle was not in the finest of conditions but doable for training and living in it for a short periods of time.

Brass was immediately placed under heavy lifting exercise while Steel went under basic exercises. Despite all they had to focus on their thoughts shifted to Galvin, wondering how he was fairing.

The Oak boy was casually surfing across waves of Route 10. He was right outside the Power Plant and for a long time this place had bothered him but he would get down to it, one way or another. After all, this place was abandoned and was replaced with a much more efficient plant in Saffron City. So why in the world would he be drawn to it?

Galvin climbed onto dry land, returning his pokemon to its pokeball and approached the door. It was sealed shut but easy to take care of with his Ninetails. The mystical fox pokemon cut a reasonably sized hole in the door with concentrated flames.

Pokemon and trainer climbed through the hole into the darkness. Without command Ninetails created blue flames on her nine tails to illuminate the area. Galvin gratefully pet the pokemon’s head. He took a look around, wall were crumbled, tiles chipped and dust and various debris littered the floor. Many paths winded and lead to dead ends or emptied rooms. Galvin soon came to the final hall of the plant where he found something rather surprising, a Zapdos sleeping in a nest composes of iron and debris. The bird climbed to its talons opened it eyes to gaze upon Galvin.

At long last, the guardian graces me with his presents.

“The… guardian?”

I can feel the power with in you. An intelligent mind charged with a thousand super volts! You are indeed my partner.

“What are you talking about?”

My dear boy you must know of Mewtwo.

“You cannot be saying I am to you as Hilda is to Mewtwo…?”

Ah ha! Correct! the giant bird chuckled. We are being called back into battle to aid Articuno and Moltres.

“Is… is this why I felt a longing? A longing for this place?”

Yes, with danger approaching you were the first to awaken their instincts. You allies were summoned by their own partner sand then had their powers unsealed. They never find their partners, their partners found them. You are the first to find their partner with powers unsealed already.

“I… already broke my seal?” Galvin crossed his arms. If he was partnered with Zapdos he would have thunder element and if his seal was broken he would of shown instances of this power…

“Ah…” the heart monitors… they weren’t shoty. He unknowingly shorted them out. “I really do I have powers.” Zapdos nodded.

It’s good to see you’ve recognized this rather than rejecting them.

“Tell me, what is the role of the guardian? To protect?”

No, the guardian in more of a tacit organizer and information specialist. Now, are you satisfied? If so, present me with your prized possession. Galvin removed Daisy’s necklace and held it up to the pokemon.

“I’m satisfied for now.” A yellow glow and a black cloud engulfed Galvin. When glow and nature resided Galvin found himself in a new set of clothes. A yellow trench coat, pale yellow collared shirt and black ribbon, black suspenders held up yellow slacks and black dress shoes on his feet. His hair was slicked back and suddenly blond with black streaks and his eyes remained its usual green. “Huh. Nice duds.”

Let’s get moving, we shouldn’t keep Articuno and Moltres waiting.

—-

Zapdos will be bringing his partner soon, they’re on their way at the moment. Articuno announced over lunch. Moltres snorted and the two humans cheered.

“I wonder who it is.”

“I hope he isn’t a butt.”

“Isn’t a butt huh?” A hand grabbed Steel and Brass’s head to knock them together. “I cant leave either of you two alone! You two always seems to get into trouble and I have to be there to bail the two of you out!”

“Galvin!” Steel gasped. “So you too…?”

“Yeah… surprising to see you both as partners too…” Galvin let out a sigh as he and Zapdos defused. The giant bird made its way over to its friends and Glavin moved closer to his own. “I guess we’re stuck to the end.”

“I guess so.” Steel smiled lightly. Galvin scratched his head.

“I don’t really know how to say this but I’m going to be training for a few days and then I’ve got to leave.”

“Leave? Where do you have to go?” Glavin glanced aside for a moment and then faced his friends once more.

“I’ll have to go find the Rune base and collect information for the impending battle. As the guardian, this is my job.”

“What?!”


	25. Chapter Twenty Four

Days came and passed and as Galvin promised. He left the sky castle to find the Rune base. Both Steel and Brass tried to talk him out of doing such a thing but he remained firm on his decision and role as a guardian. Since then more time passed, at least a week or two, and there was no response or message from him since then. Both Steel and Brass felt troubled by this but their partners reassured them Zapdos would bail Galvin out of trouble, this did not entirely reassure them but they had to have faith.

Now to be fair, if Galvin could, he would of sent a letter but after flying so long and far away from the mainland he would end up on unpopulated islands for the night so he couldn’t send mail unless he backtracked many days work to do so.

“This search is getting ridiculous!” Galvin huffed. Falling onto his backside and gazing into the afternoon sky. “Augh. This is starting to be a real pain in the ass.”

Such is the life of a guardian.

“I guess but searching with no clues is bo-”he was cut off as a helicopter suddenly flew over head. He jerked himself upright and watched the aerial vehicle fly by. “Well, that’s obviously not suspicious.” Galvin pulled on his coat and followed after the helicopter from a distance. There was no other explanation for why it would be out here. Its fairly obvious it was Rune’s.

The helicopter soon came to it’s destination. A tower made of silver and iron, towering several stories. Galvin waited for the helicopter to land before he circled the building. It definitely a Rune base as he spotted many uniform clad members about. He noted the floor plan consisted of many labs, research centers, sleeping quarters and places to exercise and train.

Galvin pulled his pen and map from his pocket. The map activated the auto-detect locator and found where he was standing in a matter of seconds. He marked the spot on he map and closed it with a snap. He dived back down to the first floor and carefully circled the building. The only thing he wasn’t one hundred percent sure of is where Simon was held. Obviously in a prison cell or some windowless room to provide the same feeling of being trapped but where? From his line of vision and attempts of avoid being caught that was hard to tell. There was no way he could sneak in, last time he sneak into a Rune base he was easy found by their leader and if he was caught again there was no promise he could get out alive. He was reluctant, but he had a basic floor plan and a location, he had to leave to deliver this information to his friends.

—-

“Ma’am we’ve noted some activity outside the facility. Your orders?”

“Leave it be.”

“Ma’am?”

“It would be no fun to crush them this early.”

“As you wish.”

“Now continue with your work.”

“Of course ma’am.”

—-

Alright, I collected the information.

“Already?” Steel teased, but her voice gave away she was quite relieved.

Yeah. My map is marked with the location and I got a quick glance inside the building.

“…What about Simon?”

Sorry. With all the Runes walking about I couldn’t get in and last time I went into a base I was easily found.

“It’s okay. When we go in for real we’ll find him.”

…Right. I’ll be back at the base within a couple of days. I hope it’s clean and organized.

“The cleaning is going along nicely. There’s many rooms, about twenty or so, full of old items and text. Right now its all gone into storage, the current owner of the items will make the decision of what to do with their respective things once they join us…”

It’s almost hard to believe there’s more than just us as soul users.

For Steel, not so much. She remembered the small shrine she visited in Vermillion City, the windows were full of many legendary trios with the revelation of soul it did not take long for her to realize other users existed out there.

“Yeah, but they’re all too young to realize their potential or even get tangled up in my mess.”

Don’t blame yourself.

“I’m sorry…”

Have you chosen a location to place the base when it’s restored.

“Brass and I decided to wait until after Rune was dealt with to chose a location for the base.”

Alright. I should get going now. Take care.

“See you soon.” the mental link cut off and Steel sighed. She collected the box full of various silks and materials that she dropped when Galvin first contacted her and made her way down the hall and down the staircase.

According to Articuno the sky castle was crafted using the power of the bird trio to create so their prime leaders and the other members had a home to keep an eye on the people and protect themselves. It was said to both fly and sink into the water for traveling but in its current state that wouldn’t be possible to do more than flying.

Steel let out a sigh, hoping to one day soon she would get to see this place back in its former glory.

—-

Days passed into weeks and it was Christmas Eve in Pallet Town and so the trio returned home for the holiday. After warm welcomes and a great feast presents were ripped open, there weren’t many since the kids were able to buy most of what they wanted with spoils from battles, but each were grateful for what they got.

The night soon came and everyone retreated early for the night. Not a single one of them slept, not from excitement but from anticipation. Tonight they were going after Rune. Bags packed and fully restocked each pre-teen sneaked out of their house.

“Where are you going Galvin?” He flinched at his sister’s voice, it was tired and somewhat bored.

“Just… out,” he quickly added “for a walk.”

“Why don’t you leave your bag then?” she yawned. Galvin clenched his fists but he quickly uncurled them as he shook his head.

“I feel better with my stuff… I feel… Secure.”

“Okay… don’t be out too late. You need to be well rested and everything for your trip back.” he nodded, reaching out to the doorknob once more when Daisy suddenly hugged him. He blinked. Her grip around him grew tighter.

“You know I’m not going for a walk… don’t you…?” Daisy nodded. Galvin sighed heavily. “Don’t tell Grandpa.”

“I don’t know what you’re doing…. I just know it’s important. It’s a sister’s instinct that knows this. Just come back alive.”

“I will.” Daisy sighed, no longer feeling thirsty, she returned to her room.

—-

“Daisy nearly caught you!?”

“There’s nothing nearly about it, she caught me at the door but she didn’t ask questions. She doesn’t know what I’m doing but she knows its dangerous…”

“Then we have to make sure we come back okay, for her sake too!”

“We’re supposed to live for everyone’s sake regardless.”

“I guess that’s true.” Brass shrugged. Galvin rolled his eyes as a response.

“Yeah, well, whatever. We need to get going. It’s eleven now, if we hurry it up we should be able to to get there while it’s still dark. Remember the plan.”

“Reserve Soul for last resorts, use pokemon against the grunts.” Steel repeated. “Find Simon as soon as possible so he cant be used against us when we confront Hilda.” With a nod from the two boys the trio took off.

——

Many days have passed, or so he thinks, since his kidnapping. It happened all too fast. He was sleeping and when he woke up he found himself in this place. A small dark room without a window or any lighting. Just constant darkness. It seemed like forever before any light returned to him but when that light came it was accompanied with a terrifying figure.

The figure looked down at him for a moment or two before shutting the door on him. He couldn’t find his voice but for the first time in what felt like forever his motor systems moved, propelling himself to the door to knock and bang upon it while screaming through tears. But not a soul came to his aid.

Time passed on and on. Slowly he felt like he was being suffocated. This room was too dark, the room was too small. There was nothing left to do once he ran out of tears to cry, only sleep but it seem like he would not have that for the moment. He could hear yells and screeches from beyond the door.

“..re here…!”

“…can’t …eve this!”

voices and phrases were muffled but if he could understand it all, people here. Could it be the police? Steel even?

For the first time in forever, Simon smiled.

—-

“DID I STUTTER?!” Steel shrieked, shaking a poor grunt around like a rag doll. After her training with Articuno, not only was she versicle in ice attacks her overall strength had increased which would explain the cracks in the wall caused by her punches when she was roughing up the grunt.

“L-l-look! I don’t know…! I’ve heard rumors about this kid but I’ve n-never seen him!”

“WELL, TELL ME WHO MADE THESE RUMORS.”

“I-it was the admin. Oh Arceus, please don’t hit me. ” the poor man trembled and tried to shield his face. Steel simply threw him aside and stomped off with Bubbled, who shook his head. Steel stormed down the hall to regroup with her friend down the hallway. She watched Brass throw aside a grunt like the trash he was.

"A grunt told me that the admin started the rumor of some captive kid." She spoke up, gaining his attention.

"So, find the admin, find Simon?" She nodded. "Galvin went on ahead. He’ll find her before us without a doubt."


	26. Chapter Twenty Five

”Galvin Oak, am I correct?”

“Maybe. You’re the admin from Saffron City?”

“Maybe,”

“Good enough for me.” Galvin released his fully evolved started. Daisy roared loudly, launching itself at the admin. She quickly swapped places with her Pokemon, flattening and knocking it out instantly.

She simply recalled the Pokemon and replaced it with a Vileplume who immediately launched plumes of paralyzing spores. Galvin counter reacted with his Ninetails, who burned the spores in midair. On his ordered Ninetails launched another flame attack, knocking out it’s opponent. No matter what pokemon the woman swapped Galvin easily counter attacked until she was down to zero.

His newly obtained Scizor pinned the woman to the wall and placed it’s giant claws around her neck.

“You are defeated, so at least go down with grace and tell me where Simon is.”

“Is that all? The only reason why you bothered to come?”

“Partially,” Galvin admitted

“So, you’re really going to fight Hilda then,”

“Of course.” the woman sighed.

“I don’t know if I should thank you or call you insane. More time that passes the more it seems like she’s losing it.”

“You’d still go to jail.”

“If the authorities could catch me.” Galvin rolled his eyes.

“Whatever, where’s Simon.”

“Just go down the hall, you’ll see a big iron door. He’s in that room.” Galvin and his Scizor retreated down the hall and as they were told, an iron door stood there. Galvin reached to the doorknob, he pulled open the heavy door as his faithful partner took a defensive stance. There was nothing but darkness waiting on the other side. Was that kid really trapped in this room for the last two months?

“Sim-” a small body stumbled forward before he could finish calling out the boy’s name. A moment passed before the realization hit him this mess was Simon. The kid looked so ragged and tired, malnourished and unkempt.

“Y…you’re Steel’s friend…”

“Yeah. We’ve come to save you and stop Rune.” The little boy seemed so relieved. Weariness took over, stumbling forward and into Galvin’s arms. He shifted the boy in his arms and carried him off. He returned to the fork in the hall where he found Brass and Steel waiting. Brass sighed.

“Gee, did you really have to kill that admin? I mean, I know she was rude and, well, evil…”

“Kill? I didn’t kill anyone.” He brushed passed the two to get a look at the admin. With the wound in her stomach she was indeed dead but with the look on her face it was rather obvious she did it to herself. “‘If the authorities could catch me.’ huh…”

The police couldn’t catch the dead. Gavin shook his head.

“Alright, Simon is here but he needs medical attention. The sooner the better, he was locked in some room, I assume the whole two months.”

“I’ll-“

“I’ll do it.” Brass interjected. “As a protector, its something I should do. You and Glavin go ahead Steel, I’ll meet up with you two as soon as I get him the medical attention he needs.” Steel hesitated for a moment before nodding. Brass opened the nearest window, with that task completed Galvin handed off the child and he jumped out the window. Flames engulfed Brass, bringing no harm to Simon, and he took off into the air. Galvin pulled an ID card from the pocket of the diseased Rune. He looked over the hunk of plastic for a moment before sliding it through the small black box next to the elevator. The silver doors slid open to reveal a rather normal elevator. He threw the card aside and looked to his friend, offering her a hand.

“Ready to go?” She nodded, taking his hand.

“Yeah,”

——

Hilda was well aware of what was going on in her base. The question was did she care?

The answer was a simple no.

If those kids didn’t beat them up, giving them a chance to live, she would of killed them herself.

The elevator opened and the woman didn’t look up from the paperwork on her desk. Once she felt the power of the two soul users did she look up. Much to her surprise they were allied with birds of the legendary bird trio.

“Well, I’ll have to admit I’m surprised with who your partners are. I was expecting your pathetic first pokemon.”

“We’ve come to put an end to you,” Steel stated firmly. “Extract Mewtwo from you or ultimately kill you. It’s time to put an end to Rune.”

“Free Mewtwo?” Hilda laughed, rather amused, finally standing up. “KilliNG ME?!” The desk suddenly flew in the direction of the two preteens. Steel quickly formed a blade crafted from ice and sliced the table in half as the windows rattled and items flew around the room. Galvin crafted a shield to keep the items at bay.

“THAT’S CUTE!! CUTE I SAY!! KILL ME! HAHAHA! SUCH SILLINESS!! YOU BRATS ARE A MILLION YEARS TOO YOUNG TO WIN THIS MATCH!!!”

Articuno and Zapdose VS Mewtwo!!

Items began to fly around with more ferocity, making Galvin’s shield give away sooner than he anticipated. A random paper weight hit him in the head. He was going to get a black eye because of that… He rubbed his eye before launching a thunder bolt, sadly the attack bounced off a shield and into the wall. He scowled.

“A shield, this is trouble…” Galvin tapped his chin. “It’s a psychic shield without a doubt.”

“I’m gonna break it!” Steel shouted rushing forward. Galvin tired to call her back but she did not listen. Her blade made contact with the shield and she was rebounded in an instant. She crashed rather painfully on her back, her blade tossed aside.

“Okay… I cant break through it…” Galvin approached her, returning her blade to her.

“I’ll distract her, try again then.” she nodded. Galvin used his powers of thunder to conger up daggers and tossed them in Hilda’s direction. She knocked them aside but Galvin fired back with yet another thunder bolt. It’s reflected off the shield as he planned and Steel made her attack. With a swing of her blade she left a rather huge gash on Hilda’s back, allowing the shield to falter and Galvin to attack once more, this time hitting dead on.

The two ducked aside as Hilda dragged herself to her feet. She looked at the blood at her hands and slowly, she began to laugh. Low and tiny slow escalating to madding chuckles.

“CONGRATULATIONS!! YOU MADE ME BLEED. YOU’RE THE FIRST TO DO SUCH A STUPID THING! YOU MUST DIE!” A stream of psychic balls pelted the duo, Galvin dived in front of Steel, taking the blunt of the attack. In the middle of the dust and haze there was a sudden cry of pain. A whirlwind cleared the room of dust what remained brought a smile to the face of the two preteens, Brass had returned and left a rather deadly burn on her left leg. Steel made a move before she could, encasing Hilda’s right leg and torso in ice.

“You alright?” Brass called. Galvin dragged himself to his feet and nodded.

“Hit her hard before she gets up!!” Steel barked. The boys nodded, getting into a triangle formation around Hilda. Each pointed their fingers at Hilda as if it was a gun.

“Trio,”

“Finale,”

“Launch!” Elements of fire, ice and thunder collided with Hilda in an explosion of pure power and elements. An audible shattering sound followed and a thud of a body. Minutes passed before Brass loudly asked;

“Is she dead?”

“I don’t think so, she’s breathing.” Steel gave the woman a kick, in return she groaned.

“So we have to drag the corpse to the authorities?”

“She’s not dead. There is no corpse.” Galvin sighed. He made the first move to approach the body when a light suddenly came from it. The light soon took shape of a pokemon, the true form of the Cerulean Cave monster. It looked down at the three Soul users and vanished without even thanking them.

“Rude.”

—-

After tying Hilda up the trio left the base Galvin took Hilda to the mainland while Brass took Steel to the nearest island of the Sevii Islands archipelago, where Brass left Simon in the care of an aged doctor. Hilda was thrown onto the doorstep of a police station with a note that had the co-ordinates of the Rune base to capture any straggler members that had remained. After that he promptly returned home to be greeted by his sister at seven in the morning. She helped her tired, battered and bruised brother to bed and kissed him on the forehead. Galvin rolled onto his side and quickly fell asleep that Christmas morning, something that surprised his grandfather when the man woke up.


	27. Epilogue

Steel nodded as she listened to her mother rant and rave about her disappearance at night. She could vaguely hear Brass’s father in the background telling her to calm down and the kids would be fine. Despite that she continued to chew her out, Steel didn’t mind it. Glancing back to where Simon slept at peace she was fine with her actions. She appologised to her mother once more and took a seat at her friend’s side. Brass reentered the room with a smile.

“The doctor said he will be fine after rest and eating healthy.” Steel clapped her hands.

“Great! That’s good news!”

“Yeah, after everything Rune did I’d say we’re lucky this is all they did to him.”

“Very luck.” Steel agreed. Steel rose from her seat, she gave Simon a glance before taking Brass by the arm and exiting the clinic. The two trainers stood in the snow fall of that Christmas morning.

“I’m glad this is all over, everything mom and dad worked for may be tarnished and lost to hideous crimes but at least it’s over.” Steel sighed softly and took a seat on a nearby bench. “I just wish I could understand why Hilda did it.”

“Some times people are just crazy.”

“Yeah, I guess.” she sighed.

“HEY EVERYBODY!” a voice suddenly yelled, waking everyone up on the small island. People of all ages started to exit their houses to see what was going on. The owner of the voice was running circles in town square with glee as they held a small compact radio over their head. “EVERYONE WAKE UP! C’MON!”

“What’s with all the racket?”

“Great news! The leader of Rune was arrested!” Murmurs began to fill the air. The young man turned the volume up on the radio and the crowd went into a hushed silence.

\----

It seems like a Christmas miracle, the leader of Team Rune has been turned into the police. The woman was thrown into police custody around five o’clock in the morning. Her captors did not stay behind to reveal their identity but left a note of the headquarters location so the police may collect any remaining members. Police found and recovered many members, all of them badly beaten, and bodies of trainers and pokemon alike that Rune kidnapped.

When questioned on her actions the leader of Rune simply laughed and stated “I did what I could. The Rune of old wanted to bring peace among man and pokemon, I wanted more than they were willing to do so, I killed them. Who would of guessed the Heir of the original Rune would be the one to bring my downfall.” We have no idea who the heir could be, but all around Kanto, we thank the heir of true Rune for closing this terrible tale.

\----

“I…. I can’t believe this….!”

“Rune is gone!”

“This is great!” The people cheered and yelled with utter happiness. Steel could only sigh.

“Mom is going to kill me.”

“Dad is going to nuke the world on me.” The following day Steel and Brass returned home with Simon and both received quite a rant from their respective parent. It went on for hours and both wished it could end and when it finally did, did they notice Simon, who had awkwardly taken a seat on the couch to play a video game. Steel’s mother began to coddle him when she explained this was her penpal from Johto and apologized for listening to her chew out Steel. Galvin later appeared with Daisy that day and she was already well aware of what the trio did. The families pulled together for one more giant dinner before the Pokemon League and everyone ate to their heart’s content.

.  
..  
…  
..  
.

“I can’t believe you won Steel!” Simon exclaimed as he followed his friend through the many halls of the cloud castle. Steel smiled wryly.

“I only made it up until Karen, she managed to beat me…”

“Still…! That’s so cool! No one ever made it that far is so long and you were super close to beating her!” The group made it down the stairs into a room full of machinery where Galvin and Brass waited next to a computer like device. Simon looked around, he was still confused to even why he was here.

“Okay Simon,” the boy was suddenly alert. “I have a very big secret and I want you to see it, as a sorry for all you were put through and because you are a very dear friend.”

“Really?! A secret?”

“Right, a very special one. My friends and I… we can, well, fuse with pokemon! And this castle will be our new home once we pick a spot for it and then we’re going to work together to help people around the world.”

“You’re going to live in a castle?!” Simon yelped. It seemed the concept of pokemon fusions went in one ear and out the other but the possibly of Hilda rambling to him about this and thus his lack of surprise was always available. Steel smiled and keeled down to him.

“Yeah, I’ll be living in this castle with Brass and Galvin from now on. Together we will watch for danger and provide help to people but don’t forget to be strong Simon. You have important friends back home too, right?”

“Uh-huh. My brother Nick and my friend Kairi! Oh and mommy too!”

“So do everything you can to keep them safe too, okay?”

“Okay!” Steel smiled and approached the computer console. On the screen was a map of the world. She carefully examined the map before carefully tapping the waters between four of the cardinal regions. The screen confirmed her choice and the building began to rattle. The group made their way up the stairs to watch the passing scenery as the castle descended from the clouds and skim across the water.

On reaching the chosen co-ordinates the sounds of turning and grinning gears filled the air. The cloud castle began to take shape and form into an actual building that effortlessly floated on the water, expansion it’s size to reach above and bellow the water and various pieces of furniture began to fill the various rooms. The tiles suddenly shined brighter than what the hand work of Steel and Brass could of done, various tall gaping windows in halls and rooms were decorated with very fine cloths, the library had a decent amount of books to start the collection now and a greenhouse even appeared.

To put quite simply, it was a grand sight.

Shortly after that Simon was sent home on a ship back to Johto. He was welcomed back warmly by his friends and family. He told them many (doctored) tales of Steel and her friends to keep his captivity hidden. On his return home a party was waiting for him, he had forgotten his birthday had occurred while he was in Kanto.

Simon was quite glad to be back home.

\----

Kairi let out a tiny sigh. She spent all day tilting soil and sowing but now she just wanted to get it all over with so she could visit Simon and Nick. She looked at all the space the field occupied and sighed. It went on miles and for miles! This wasn’t even her usual work, Terra, her older brother, had to get sick and she had to cover for him!

“This will take forever… I don’t have time for this…” she huffed. Well. There was an easy way to deal with this but mom hated her using that way…

Kairi glanced to her left and then right. She shrugged. Well, what mom didn’t know didn’t hurt her. The girl lifted her arms in to the air and a light rainfall showered the fields. Satisfied, Kairi left the fields with a grin on her face.

\----

“Where are we Black?”

“Oh just a small town called Mahogany Town, it’s where the best of the Red Ribbon facilities are located. I talked to your counselor and they recommended coming here Linda.”

“Really? That sounds nice. I hope they can help me…”

“Without a doubt they will, Red Ribbon is the best of the best after all!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Act One: Kanto  
> The Return of Rune  
> November 5th, 2010 - November 21st, 2012


End file.
